Louvre and Orsay

I have limited time in Paris and would like to see the %26quot;famous%26quot; peices at the Louvre and Orsay. I know the Mona Lisa, Last Supper, Venus...are all a must see, but are there others I shouldn%26#39;t miss? It%26#39;s impossible to see everything in a couple of days!

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It that to %26quot;see%26quot;, or to enjoy. But the short answer is no!

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Limited time for the museums, it%26#39;s a shame. Really, almost everything in both of these incredible museums could be classified as a must-see. But let me try to give you a run-down of some of the stuff that everyone would be appalled if you didn%26#39;t see while in the museums:

By the way, The Last Supper is not in Paris, it%26#39;s in the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan, Italy.

Louvre: La Gioconda (Mona Lisa), Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Virgin of the Rocks, Boy with Club Foot, Fragonard%26#39;s Bathers, Durer%26#39;s self-portrait, Michaelangelo%26#39;s Dying Slave, Wedding Feast at Cana, Chupicaro statue from Mexico.

Musee d%26#39;Orsay: Really here you should spend the bulk of the time focusing on the Impressionist work, as the Orsay has the greatest collection of Impressionists work in the world. Some things to see in general include: Manet%26#39;s Picnic on the Grass, Manet%26#39;s Olympia, Degas%26#39;s Absinthe, Whistler%26#39;s mother, Renoir%26#39;s Moulin de la Galette. But really this is but a sampling. There are rooms full of great works by Manet, Monet (including famed water lilies), Degas (including various ballet portraits), Renoir, Toulouse laTrec, Gaughin%26#39;s Tahitian portraits, and a great collection of Van Gogh%26#39;s works (including a few self-portraits and famed haystacks).

Don%26#39;t get so caught up with the famous, though, that you don%26#39;t take a little time to at least get a flavor of each part of each museum. Enjoy!

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^^Absolutely agree! I%26#39;ll be there in April after a 7 year hiatus and I can%26#39;t wait to get into the D%26#39;Orsay again. We%26#39;re planning on going to the Louvre briefly late one afternoon (have to say hi to Mona!), but this time we are concentrating on D%26#39;Orsay. Loved it last time.....fabulous priceless works of art.

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Oh, the d%26#39;Orsay....dreamy, wonderful, a treat for the eyes, amazing, beautiful - my tip for the top.

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Hope the following is useful to you. Enjoy your holiday!

Lourve

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There is so much to see in the Lourve. During my last trip, I joined a one hour+ tour in English organised by the museum itself, where they showed you the top sights that you should not miss. This is a very short tour, which you may like to join.

You can check at the information counter for the time of the tour.

Besides La Jaconde (Mona Lisa), other things that you should not miss in Lourve are Venus of Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and many other paintings. I spent nearly 1 day in the Lourve. If you are there specially to pay Mona Lisa a visit, I suggest that you go to the museum early (around 9am) and go straight to see her first. Better if you are there when the museum open (which is what I did). You will have a very clear view of the Mona Lisa. The reason is because it gets very very very crowded when it is around 10am+ and onwards. Bus loads of tourists with their guide arrive. Many people marching towards to see Mona Lisa, to the extend that there is a queue. Frankly, by then, you can hardly see her. People are squeezing each other to go in front of the painting.

Orsay

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For Orsay museum, you should not miss the Impressionist paintings on the upper floors. The building itself housing the museum was previously a train station.

Marmottan

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And if you do not have enough of Monet in Orsay, you should visit this other museum. Pls see this web site: http://www.marmottan.com/uk/sommaire/

The very well known Monet%26#39;s painting %26quot;Soleil Levant%26quot; is in this museum. You will love this place.

Rodin

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If you have time, you should also visit the Rodin museum to see the famous %26quot;The Thinker%26quot;. Pls refer to this web site: http://www.musee-rodin.fr/welcome.htm

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When you get to the Louvre you can take a map (free). The map has highlights of various collections and this willbe a great tool for you to decide which pieces are from periods of art history that most interest you. My personal all time favorite piece at the Louvre (to date...impossible to see the entire collection with the vast mahority of it in storage, off site) is the Winged Victory of Samathrace.

The Orsay, if you are going to go the Impressionist route, head directly up to the 5th niveau. You will take a cat walk past the back of the large station clock and find yourself before Caillebot%26#39;s painting on three men varnishing a wooden floor. Take your time before this piece, it is the most over looked piece in the collection, n my opinion, and it is a masterpiece of light and composition. You can almost smell their sweat and feel their thirst. Continue to the next room and appreciate Manet%26#39;s Dejeuner sur L%26#39;Herbe. This piece was so groundbreaking for its time that not only did they reject it from the Salon des Arts, but they created an entirely new Salon of rejects so that people could come and laught at Manet%26#39;s work.

Be sure to take a moment or two before Degas%26#39; sculpture of the Ballerina (the first to be a fabric/bronze mix) and the rest of the pieces in the display case. This is a fairly complete collection of some of the only statues from the Impressionist movement.

The rest is breathtaking and there are several famous pieces that I have not covered. You will surely see them, but if you are limiting your time, I highly recommend that you see just a few pieces but really take the time to SEE them.

You could go to their websites and get as much information as possible on the pieces that really interest you before ever getting on the plane, that way you will understand what you are really looking at.