Musee d'Orsay

Our first stop in Paris (after dropping our bags off at our hotel) was the Musee d'Orsay. I remember loving it when I went to Paris after high school, and as luck would have it, my friend felt the same. We both preferred it to the Louvre, so that's where we took our kids. We had a few hours before it closed, so we were able to see the impressionists (our top priority) and also Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin. 

Here we go, heading up to the impressionists...

The kids and I have an art museum tradition of treasure hunting. We either play the game so that the kids pick their favorite picture from each room/section, or I make a list of items for them to find. This time we did the first one, and each kid took a picture of their favorites. My phone is quite full of pretty impressive impressionism (see what I did there?) so I only included a few here.

I found it interesting how consistent their preferences were from room to room. Justin distinctly preferred Monet, and leaned toward landscape scenes. Rebecca gravitated toward Degas, especially his horse sculptures and ballet dancers. She also liked scenes with relatively realistic young girls.

Rebecca paused to sketch a few of her favorites--in this case a Degas horse sculpture.

We had studied impressionists in the week leading up to our trip, in my attempt at preparing the kids for the experience. Both kids were delighted to see "in person" this Monet poppy painting that we had learned about in books. Here is documentary evidence that they really were there!

We had so much fun. We could easily have spent a few more days there, but the few hours we spent were probably just perfect for the kids. We will go to the Louvre next time, but honestly, I really do love this museum!