Tracking Down Van Gogh

Today was a free day - on the itinerary from AmaWaterways, it was originally listed for us to visit Musee d'Orsay. And I still wanted to do that.

Mixed fruit at breakfast

Breakfast

I went onto their website to look at what kinds of things they had in their collection, and made a mental note of things that I would like to see. We got a cab to it. Although I had A look at the bus routes to get from one place to another, we never actually used the bus. A cab was just so much easier.

I had found that the entrance for handicapped and priority people was entrance C, so after the cab dropped us off, we went to entrance C. This involved my finding the ramps that led from the street up to the entrance.

Horse With A Harrow, Pierre-Louis Rouillard, 1820-1881

Not only did we jump all the lines, but they did not make us buy a ticket which I was willing to do. Even though I do not have any of the credentials that gives a handicapped person free access, I guess riding on a scooter is enough. What I mean by that is:
The actual websites for the museums say something like
"There is free access through priority entrance C for the disabled visitor and one accompanying person, on proof of eligibility: valid cards issued by the MDPH (local regional authority for the disabled) or equivalent certificate from another country, together with photographic ID"
But I don't have any such cards. And they do not ask me for them. All I have is a handicapped tag for my car, and I don't have that with me.

The Musée d'Orsay was originally built as a train station to bring visitors to the 1900 World's Fair. Architect Victor Laloux built the Gare d'Orsay with modern features such as luggage ramps and elevators and an attached hotel. The museum has been organised on three levels: on the ground floor, galleries are distributed on either side of the central nave, which is overlooked by the terraces of the median level, these in turn opening up into additional exhibition galleries.

Musee d'Orsay

The top floor is installed above the lobby, which covers the length of the Quai, and continues into the highest elevations of the former hotel.

Inside of the clock

Peeking out through the clock

We first went to see Toulouse-Lautrec which was on the first floor (or the floor we came in on. I thought that would be good for the cabaret that we are going see tonight.

Pastel of Mme. Lucy by Toulouse Lautrec

Jane Avril dansant by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

Panel for La Goulue's Booth at the Foire du Trone, Paris

A got a map of the museum and she wanted to see the Van Gogh next. That was on floor 2, but it wasn't directly on floor 2. We went up to floor 2

Les Romains de la Decadence by Thomas Couture

and there lots of sculptures and furniture

Animal sculpture

Furniture display

but there were steps to get down to where the Van Gogh and Gauguin were. So we asked.

A helpful museum employee told us to get an elevator down and then go up a ramp. The elevators were all behind doors which opened in towards the elevator. So I could not go through the door and then wait for the elevator on the other side as there was no room for me to be there with the door shut - it would have to shut where I was sitting on the scooter.

We did go down the elevator and and found the ramp which was behind a plain (and very heavy) door. I saw a bunch of paintings of Van Gogh's

Portrait de l'artiste (pre-camera selfie)

L'Arlesienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux by Van Gogh (she owned Café de la Gare)

and some of them I had no idea that they existed. The Siesta

La Meridienne, dit aussi La Sieste- Van Gogh

Dans le jardin de docteur Paul Gachet by Van Gogh

My favorites were

Chaumes de Cordeville a Auvers-sur-Oise by Van Gogh

Thatched Cottages at Cordeville and

The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise

but there was also one like the Sunflowers and Iris paintings,

Fritillaries in a Copper Vase

except that this time it was of Fritillaries. I had taken a photo of fritillaries three years ago when we visited the tulip gardens in Amsterdam, so I was quite interested to see a painting with Fritillaria in it.

Fritillaria

There were also paintings by Gauguin on this level as Van Gogh and Gauguin were contemporaries. My favorite was

The White Horse - Gauguin

because I like paintings of horses.

We ignored the Berthe Morisot special exhibit (you have to prioritize) and next went to the top floor (5) to see the rest of the Impressionists.

I wanted to see the painter who started the whole impressionist movement - Manet. There were not as many of the Manet that I had expected to see, but there was Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Manet - Luncheon on the Grass

which was rejected by the Salon jury of 1863. So Manet seized the opportunity to exhibit this and two other paintings in the 1863 Salon des Refusés, where the painting sparked public notoriety and controversy. I could compare it to Pastoral Concert (ca. 1510) by Giorgione or Titian which was in the mainstream of painting at the time - if Manet's painting had been illustrating a historical event or a Bible story it would have been OK to have nude women with fully dressed men.

Comparison

There were some paintings by Monet - the waterlily pictures.

Blue Water Lilies

Le bassin aux nympheas, harmonie verte by Monet

But there was also a picnic picture by Monet

The Picnic, Claude Monet

In the beginning Monet was influenced by Courbet. (Courbet painted the picture I saw in the Louvre of a life raft where people were canabalistic) The Picnic (6 by 6 meters) was unfinished and later rolled up and then cut up. In one of the two large fragments preserved in the Musée d'Orsay it is possible to recognise, seated among the guests in a clearing in the forest of Fontainebleau, the figure of Courbet himself. We also saw

Jardin potager à l'Hermitage. Pontoise by Camille Pissarro

There was a Van Rysselberghe which was very "Old Man and the Sea" ish (except that the Old Man wasn't in a sailboat)

Van Rysselberghe - The man at the Tiller

Then there was Cezanne,

Woman with a coffee pot by Cezanne

and some of Degas which I really liked. In addition to the ballet pictures,

Detail of Rehearsal on Stage, Edgar Degas, 1874

He also painted race horses

Le Champ de courses. Jockeys amateurs pres d'une voiture

Course de gentlemen.

From Renior there were sculptures

Eau - Renoir statue in bronze

We saw another one of his

Jeunes filles au piano

and could compare the two

Comparison of the two young girls playing the piano by Renoir

At about noon, A called for an Uber

Rhinoceros sculpted by Alfred Jacquemart

and we went back to the hotel. I probably should have gone to the Galleries Lafayette as she needs a wallet that isn't broken, but we have to pack to have our suitcases out by 6:30 tomorrow. We did pack a little bit in the afternoon and then we both took naps.

A's report on the museum

It was still pretty hot and I heard people at the hotel complaining that the A/C didn't work, especially on the top floor. But we are on the ground floor so there was no problem for us.

To sign up for the cabaret

We leave at 1900 for the cabaret, which will get us back late. I'm just going to take my cane because there is little space for the scooter inside, and I think I will only have to walk from the hotel steps to the bus, and from the bus into the restaurant. The club was named Paradis Latin and was built by Eiffel. I think my dad went to the Folies Bergère in 1950 - I was too young to be allowed to go.

Paradis Latin program with the featured female singer

There proved to be more walking than I was told. I rode the scooter to the front desk and Dragan said to put it on the bus just in case. I did have my cane. The first step of the bus was a really high one and I had some trouble with it. When we got to the restaurant they did let me out at the door, but it is a very big restaurant and our tables were right next to the stage - so quite a long way from the door.

Tables near the stage

I can only walk a maximum of 300 meters, so I was quite out of breath by the time I got there and I took the first seat.

First we had dinner

Menu

They gave us 1/2 bottle of Bordeaux Wine
1/2 bottle of Mineral Water
1/4 bottle of Champagne and at the beginning a glass of Rose. We
tasted that and the Bordeaux but we only really drank the water.

A choice of 3 appetizers -
Aperitif Paradis Latin
Perigourdine Salad
Shrimp in Puff pastry

We both had the Perigourdine Salad (I looked it up on my phone first) which had pieces of either duck giblets or just duck in it as well as cherry tomatoes, some croutons, and a piece of something like pate, as well as a plethora of water cress and a lot of other greens.

Perigourdine Salad

Then we could have Beef Chateaubriand or Salmon Filet, and we both took the beef since we had quite a bit of salmon recently. This came with potato Gratin Dauphinois - a little cup of potato with cheese on top.

Chateaubriand and potato Gratin

And last we had apple tart, but they had taken away all our utensils except a big spoon so I couldn't cut up the tart part but only eat the apple slices that were in it.

While we were eating this lady sang.

Dinner singer in the balcony

A can tell you the songs - I don't remember them all. There was also a cello player and various dancers dressed up in skin tight suits with leopard spots, or tiger or zebra stripes or snake skin.

Dancers on the stage and in the balcony

Back of a male dancer

There was one girl who had cotton balls all over her outfit which I couldn't figure out who she was representing except maybe she had killed a lot of rabbits to decorate herself with their tails. After dinner the real show started - there was a comedienne who only spoke English

Female comedienne and singer

to tell us that there were to be no photos or videos. Some of the dancers were topless (both the men and the women) and there were some very interesting acts and singing. There was a lady in a long red gown and her sidekick who was something like Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy. At least he was like the skinny one, who I think was Laurel. He was the straight man. A described this perfectly (better than I could). This is what she wrote
The woman would come out on stage with some dangerous thing (knife, darts, whip, rifle, hammer) and attach it to something or set it up. Then she would yell “BERT” which sounds like belt with a French accent. This guy would shuffle out and she would make him part of her dangerous stunt somehow (putting an an apple on his head, making him balance on a wire while she shot balloons etc.). Before she commenced each thing she would ask “okay?” And he would reply “ok!” with both fear and nonchalance.
The rest of A's report
At one point they called the waiters up on stage - they all had pink feather fans. One of them was actually the male singer and the rest of them went back to being waiters.

Former waiter - now singer

There was a featured woman singer who was not the one who sang at the beginning.

Girl comes down on Pegasus

There was an underwater scene with fishes swimming among the dancers (projection on the curtain to look like fishes), and suddenly dropping into the "sea" was a whole lot of plastic and garbage.

Two of the men were dressed as centaurs and they had a mock fight. In one of the sections the men had shirts on that looked like they were all tattooed. They did a version of the can-can at the end. The music was loud.

I counted only 6 male dancers. (One of them reminded me of a man who was a trainee of mine back in MOSH)

Dancer that reminded me of a friend

There were a lot more women in the show. They were all beautiful - not a speck of cellulite on them, and they must have all had at least a Brazilian.

We got back to the hotel about midnight and the gate that we go in to get to our room was actually locked (and not just shut as it was last night), and there was a luggage cart against it inside to keep it from being opened. A had to go in and get them to open it.

We packed - I was going to try to get my computer bag into the suitcase, but I could not do it even though A took the extension cord and the scooter charger in her suitcase. We put the suitcases outside the door before we went to bed. We leave for Lyon to board the boat tomorrow