I can't believe we almost didn't do this one!

My plans for Paris didn't originally include the Musee d'Orsay, as I was more interested in ticking off the Louvre, Eiffel, Arc etc. However, after our trip, it is now my favourite gallery in Europe.

The gallery is in an old railway station that was built in 1900. By 1940, the platforms were obsolete, so it fell into disuse and was almost demolished before the Mayor came to his senses in 1977.

It is a gloriously long building:


and the inside is cavernous:


So there is plenty of room for gorgeous things. Within a very diverse collection, Lucy and I caught up with our friend Sappho:


and then quickly moved onto the collections. I think we did it all a bit backwards; our first stop was some fun modernist paintings:



I was impressed by the depth of the collection. I know it is fairly clearly an important museum, but they had more than one or two good works by important artists. Once away from the modern stuff, we were absolutely spoiled by room after room dedicated to painters. There was a Renoir room, a lovely Degas room (including thirty or so ballet dancers statuetes in bronze) and Monet, Manet, Cezanne...

It was Art History Student heaven, and I really enjoyed seeing for the first time paintings I had written ungainly essays about for most of the mid-1990s. It was a blast to say hello to my mate Vinnie as well:


I spent the majority of my time in his room, which had twenty major works - including Starry night over the river Rhone (1876).

Highlights elsewhere included Whistler's mother (1871)and Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (c1862). Overall, it was awesome.

And a great way to finish the trip.