Tapestries in the Musee de la Moyen Age

There is an amazing collection of tapestries at the Cluny Museum.  I've pasted a few examples below.  The most amazing and famous is a series called "The Lady and the Unicorn".  The pictures below that are primarily red (the second, third and fifth) are all from this series. 

Tomorrow we're doing some shopping and going a restaurant in the Marais district that a friend recommended.  Then it's back to the UK for me and back to Seattle for Spencer and Aimee.

Gardens at Versaiiles

We (meaning Spencer & Aimee) did their research and knew that on Saturdays the fountains in the gardens of Versailles are on (here's a cool map.)  So that's why we went.  Here's a picture (with rainbow) of the Apollo Fountain on.  It was really amazing.  We sat right on the edge of the fountain, listened to the music that was also playing, and enjoyed the spectacle.

Here are some goldfish in a fountain in the gardens.  I thought it looked a little like an Impressionist painting...

The Museum of the Middle Ages

Today we went to the Museum of the Moyen Age (Middle Ages) or the Cluny Museum.  Here are a few photos of the buildings.  It used to be a abbey of the Cluny order so it's a fantastic old building.  And there is a VERY old Roman bath next to it/incorporated into it.  It's fantastic.

Some great old stained glass is in the collection - this is one of the ones I liked.

And this is just something that caught my eye.  

I'll post a few pictures of some of the tapestries in the next post.  This museum has an amazing collection. 

Versailles!

Here are a few photos of the chateau at Versailles.  We had a fantastic day for the trip.  But we skipped the chateau tour and wandered through the gardens.  I'll have a few photos of those in the next post!

This is the line - and the reason we went directly to the gardens!  The line actually goes of for quite a distance to the right and behind me.  We tried every trick but couldn't get in any other way....so off to the gardens!

Art from the Musee l'Orangerie

Spence, Aimee and I made it to the Musee de l'Orangerie - a fantastic museum in the Tuileries Gardens.  The main floor has been specifically made for some massive pictures by Monet (see the pictures in the link above) and the lower floor has a fantastic collection of Impressionist art.  Below are some of my favorite.  I promised myself that I'd remember the artists of each, but of course I haven't.  So just enjoy!

A Few Cool Pictures from the Guimet Museum (and the Tour Eiffel)

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the Guimet, a fantastic museum of Asian art.  No commentary on these tonight because I want to get a few more pictures up!

This is a bhodisatva with 1,000 arms.

These are examples of my favorite art form - a fusion of Indian,  Greek and Asian art that came from Ghandara.

And the Tour Eiffel!

Here are a few pictures from our first full day here.  It rained for the first part of the day - Spencer and I got rather wet on our first foray out for Pain au Chocolate!  But it was worth it.  And we made a goal of trying a different patisserie every day!

We went to the Musee d'Orsay this first day.  So very cool.  It's an old train station that was coverted into an amazing museum for art from the Impressionist, post-Impressionist and whatever came before the Impressionist period.  Really great.  Here are some photos of the art we saw.  I wish I could tell you painted all of these, but I didn't take a pencil and so I couldn't write anything down.  But I hope you enjoy them!


   

  

This is the view toward Montmartre and Sacre Coeur from the top floor of the Musee d'Orsay.  The sun came out while we were in the museum and the views were really cool!  And the Rodin sculptures in the main court of the museum looked really amazing with the sun streaming through.