Musée d’Orsay
Esplanade Valery Giscard d’Estaing, 75007 Paris
Website – tel: 01 40 49 48 14.
Metro station: Solferino
Price: museum and exhibitions, full price / reduced price, from: €14 / €11. Free for EU citizens under 26 years old (free for non-EU citizens under 18 years old). Free general admission on the first Sunday of each month.
Open daily except on Mondays: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ; Thursday: 9:30 a.m. to 9:45 p.m.
Guided tours and audio guides (€6) are available.
Also houses temporary exhibitions
Workshops for children between 6 and 12 years old.
A certified “Tourism and Handicap” location. Wheelchairs available for use.
The Clock Viewpoint: I highly recommend heading to the 5th floor to look through the giant station clocks; they offer a unique and framed perspective of the Seine and the Sacré-Cœur, providing one of the most Instagrammable spots in the museum before you dive into the Impressionist galleries.
This museum is housed in the beautiful Orsay train station, built in 1898 to accommodate visitors to the World’s Fair of 1900.
Its collections include paintings and Western sculpture from 1848 to 1942. Its internationally renowned collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings is the largest in the world.
But more than the quantity is the quality of the masterpieces presented, which make it a must-see: “The Luncheon on the Grass” by Edouard Manet or “The Origin of the World” by Gustave Courbet, and many others.
Other forms of artistic expression from this period are also presented (architecture, decorative arts, photography).
My Tip: To uncover the Impressionist masterpieces, this is the experience I suggest.
