HYDERABAD: For me, like many others, to be in Paris is pure bliss. When I got to spend a week there, I considered myself the luckiest. France has a lot of museums and Paris has even more. As a lover of art, making the best out of my time there, I visited a number of museums and the one that’s still fresh in my memory is the unique Musée d’Orsay.
One morning, walking along the left bank of the River Seine, I entered the lovely Musée d’Orsay. The uniqueness of the museum is, it is housed in the former railway station built between 1898 and 1900.
The museum holds mainly French art, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photographs.
It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Degas, Renoir, Manet, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. It is one of the largest art museums in Europe – a must see in Paris for lovers of impressionism.
The museum is on three levels, with specific exhibition spaces and different facilities distributed throughout the three levels.
After spending three hours feasting my eyes with all the art that Musée d’Orsay had to offer, I climbed the terrace to be greeted by a splendid sight. The huge sculptures on the terrace walls formed a beautiful foreground to the lovely view of the Louvre as the tranquil Siene flowed along.
As I walked back, I was struck by the perfection of a living statue on the street, with a begging bowl placed in the front. I stood there for a long time, admiring the patience and persistence of the poor busker.
I realised that sculptures are made of not just stone, metal, wood and clay, but sadly they are also made of tears. (The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer; blogs at www.vijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com)