Milk Run At the Musee D’Orsay

In an age where new museums seem to be trying too hard to make a statement about art (and end up making more of a statement about what it would look like if Christo decided to chrome plate a junkyard), the Musee D’Orsay sets the standard for inspiring architecture that equals the paintings it houses.

For all of its strengths, the museum does have one famous flaw. Similar to your local supermarket or department store, they put the good stuff that everybody really wants at the back of the joint so you have to traipse through the entire place just to get your quart of milk or fix of Monet as the case may be.

So the trick is to do just what you do when you go to the grocery for milk - pay no attention to all the odds and ends vying for your attention and beeline for the escalators at the back (in true department store fashion, the elevators are for handicapped only).

Once you reach the top of the 5th escalator, you are in impressionist heaven, with room after room of famous greats, mixed in with painters just as great but not so famous, like Redon, most of whose spiritually intense were displayed in darkened rooms that preserve their colors but also give them an additional allure.

Tags: Paris travel