Photo : inconnu / Wikimedia Commons (marque déposée)
Le musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay occupies the former Gare d'Orsay, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. The station was built from 1898 to 1900 by the architect Victor Laloux to serve the Paris-Orléans railway line. On the decision of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, it was converted into a museum, inaugurated on 9 December 1986. The interior design was entrusted to the Italian architect Gae Aulenti.
The collections cover Western art from 1848 to 1914. The museum has one of the richest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world, with nearly 1,100 canvases. You can see, for example, Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe and Olympia, Courbet's The Painter's Studio, Monet's Rouen Cathedral series and Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette.
The great nave of the former station, under its glass roof, gives the place a singular atmosphere, and temporary exhibitions complement the permanent route.
