Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Art, cool design, plenty to look at |
| Disadvantages: |
Pricey, hard to navigate |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
The Musee d'Orsay used to be the Gare d'Orsay, it has been converted from an old railway station into an art gallery. The building itself is on Rue Bellechasse and from the outside looks like an old railway station, of course many of the windows are now covered and the entrances closed. Inside is a different story as a mix of ideas and designs have transformed the interior into an interesting place to display art.
You can expect to queue for a good half hour to get in but it is well worth it. If you are aged 18-25 it costs 33 francs and otherwise it will cost you 45 francs, £4.50, which makes it one of the more expensive attractions on offer. What do you get for your money? Well in this case you get access to some of the most famous art in the world, including paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Pisarro and Sisley.
Entering into the main hall you will find a modern art style redesign of the old main hall of the station, the huge round windows at one end are retained but there are sculptures, seats and gantries which make the place look more interesting. I think some functionality has been sacrificed in order to make an architecturally interesting design inside as it is not terribly easy to find your way around, the signs seem to be quite misleading.
The rooms off the main hall have old artworks, none of which interested me greatly, you have to climb up stairs to find the masters. The most popular artists who pull in the crowds have been displayed in consecutive rooms. It is liable to be very busy but some of the paintings are really superb, I wandered around spewing forth such arty critcism and analysis as 'That's nice' and 'What is that meant to be' while my wife patiently explained it to me. I have no real knowledge of art but I like to look at pretty pictures and 90% of the waffle in the artworld is pretentious rubbish anyway.
In addition to the paintings there was a shop with nice prints on offer fairly cheaply as well as the usual array of pencils and stuff. There were also a few sculptures dotted around and displays of different architectural designs and furniture, I was pleased to see a Scot had made it in the shape of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Descending the stairs at the back left of the building there was a large display of models, all incredibly intricate.
The other place worth visiting is the multimedia room, here you can select a terminal and check on all of the paintings in the museum. There is commentary available on each one and many have been explained and desconstructed so that you can see what the artist was trying to acheive. Some of the commentary is very illuminating and if you were looking for a specific painting then this would speed up the process. When we went in it was empty, and most people seemed to poke their head round the door sheepishly and assume they weren't supposed to use the computers before disappearing, so take advantage.
You could probably spend a couple of hours here comfortably, alot more if you are into art. There was also a cafeteria which we avoided and I can only assume it would have been expensive, as they usually are in these places. There were guided tours available for groups and in fact large groups are only admmitted if they are part of a guided tour. Otherwise you could hire one of these headset things, in a variety of languages, that tells you stuff as you wander round. There are lifts and even some ramps so I think this would be suitable for the disabled to visit, all in all well worth a look.
