Thursday, March 19, 2009

Paris with my BFF

Kent and I had the chance to go to Paris by OURSELVES! We had wanted to go back to Paris to visit the art museums by ourselves. We had so much fun together. It's always fun being with your BFF!
We had begun our art trip with a trip to the Musee d' Orsay. This beautiful museum is full of Impressionism Art. With collections from Monet, Millet, Renoir, Manet, Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin...just to name a few. Here are a few pictures from the Orsay.
Above is by James Whistler entitled "The Artist's Mother". We had remembered this painting from our college humanities textbook. It was beautiful to see it.

I loved this painting. The tenderness of the kiss and the love shown among mothers and daughters. Plus look at that pretty red hair :)
I loved Jean-Francois Millet's work. This painting is entitled "The Angelus. He loved to depict peasant life, their day to day fight to surive, and of their labours. I loved the gratitude and humility shown in this painting.
Here we are in front of the Louvre.

I was so excited to go into the Louvre. It was my first time and one of those sureal moments of...wow, I'm really here in Paris going to enter the Louvre. I've studied the art and seen pictures of the Louvre and I was finally there. We had so much fun in this museum. You can spend a week in the museum and probably still miss something. We spent 10 hours in there, because we could (no whining). We bought the audio sets, which was like having our own personal humanities lesson. They were high tech sets that allowed you to take several tours from master pieces, to Italian artists, to sculptures, to antiquities. And we DID!! Here is just a bit of the great things we saw... (we have so many pictures)

Of course...the Mona Lisa. Okay some people are disappointed by the Mona Lisa...(it is smaller than you would think) but I wasn't! I thought it was incredible to be looking at a piece of art that I have only ever seen in a textbook. Once again, it was "wow, I'm in Paris looking at the Mona Lisa". And yes, the eyes follow you and the colors are incredible. The Leonardo da Vinci collections at the museum were amazing.
The Egyptian antiquities were amazing when you would stop and see the dates dating back to 3000 BC. This is a picture of the Sphinx (2620- 2500 BC). Their collection was like none other. We kept thinking it would end and it didn't.
This was one of our favorite sculptures (there are many to choose from) called "Victory of Samothrace (190-180 BC) this along with the "Venus de Milo (another favorite) were found in Greece.









8 comments:

Smith Family said...

Very nice! I like the title to your post. I like the art you posted about, very pretty and tender. It's nice to see pictures like that mixed in with the millon undressed ones. :-)

The State of Our Family said...

Loved it! I can't believe you spent 10 HOURS in the Louvre! You are the woman! I think I spent maybe three. :)

Jen Gifford said...

How fun, what a neat experience! What amazing adventures you all have been able to have. I miss you and love you!

Jennifer Rasmussen said...

I was so excited to find your blog. We miss you guys, it's nice to see what you have been doing. Next time you take the kids to Paris try out the Rodin museum. It's small, the sculpture is beautiful and it is in a great garden for kids to run around.

Candace said...

HOW amazing! I can't wait 'til J & I can do that trip, kid-less preferably. =) Must've just been absolute heaven!

(p.s. keep on posting! haha.)

Ginny and Ben said...

What fun! You are lucky to have babysitters, even in Germany. Who was the angel who watched your kids for you? Can you send them to Ohio?

byers babes said...

Wow!! I'm so jealous! What fun. I love that you were there for 10 hours. Nice.

Krista said...

Lovely pictures Lisa! I am so gla dyou are getting out and making the effort to do these fun things. I enjoy having Aubrey in my class!