Paris-Day 3

Our third day in Paris, the three of us decided should be spent at a museum.  Melissa told us to go to Musee d’Orsay if we were to only go to one museum in Paris.  I couldn’t not go to the Louvre, and I’ m pretty sure Joey and Katy felt the same way, so we decided to go there our last day.  So that meant we had the whole third day in Musee d’Orsay.  Except not really.  Because Katy and I wanted to go back to Pere-Lachaise. 

So we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and headed to Lachaise.  In the crisp sunlight there was an other-worldly feeling to the place.  Its so quite there, so quite and calm its almost eerie.  Its haunting, really.  But what really makes it so haunting, what really emphasizes the silence and makes it ring in your ears is the crows.  There are crows all over the graveyard.  And they squawk and call, and other than your footsteps, that’s the only noise. 

The graves, the houses, the sculptures, were all illuminated by the sunlight in such a beautiful way.  Intense shadows across the faces, the bodies, in the tombs.  It was beautiful, magnificent.  Joey went off on his own to read and find Rossini’s grave.  Katy and I wandered around, something we seem to do quite well.  There was one sculpture on the top of a tomb that was so sad, it made me cry.  This young woman, a beautiful young woman, crying over who I originally thought was her dead lover.  I was so focused on the crying girl that I didn’t look at the person under her, until I walked around the sculpture and saw that it said ‘Adieu Mere’, then I looked at the figure and realized it was a woman, it was a mother.  It was so sad! 

We went and saw Delacroix’s grave, and Katy put a flower on it.  We visited Oscar Wilde’s tomb and Katy and I may or may not have kissed it with red lipstick on. 

We allotted ourselves only about 3 hours there, so that we would have time for the Orsay in the afternoon.  It was not enough time there.  I’m so sad, there are so many graves that I didn’t get to see!  I wanted to pay respects to Modigliani but didn’t have time.  I have to go back!

So next we went to Musee d’Orsay.  Most definitely Melissa was correct, every painting in there was amazing.  I can’t believe all of the great paintings I saw.  It was so weird to stand in front of these paintings I’ve studied and analyzed, to be face to face with them.  It was so wonderful to see the brush storkes of the artists though!  To see the marks that Van Gogh made, and Cézanne, and Manet, was energizing, exciting!  Olympia is beautiful.  The way Manet handled his brush, oh its exquisite.  And to see Van Gogh’s thick paint, built up almost like a sculpture, it was so exciting! 

I was having a hard time in the museum though.  I have been struggling with painting, about the meaning of it, about why I do it.  I love to paint, but I am often afraid that it doesn’t do anything or help anyone, that I simply and selfishly create waste when I paint.  After we left the museum, before heading back to our hostel, we crossed the Seine to enjoy the sunset in the Tullieries garden.  While we were over the Seine I spoke to Katy and Joey about my struggle with painting.  I basically blurted it all out, all of my worried and struggles came flying out of my mouth and fell into the Seine.  We crossed the bridge and I stood in awe of the sunset, of the beauty all around me, and I forgot about the problems I had been having.