Day 6

Day 6 has arrived. We awoke on a fresh morning ready for our early visit to the Musée D’Orsay, a impressionist museum located on the bank of the Seine. We marked the beginning of the day with a group panorama before lining up to enter the Museum. We were given exclusive early access to the museum entering before it was officially open. This gave us 15 minutes to roam the empty museum alone. Musée D’Orsay is home to many famous impressionist artworks such as Apples and Oranges by Paul Cezanne. This museum was formerly a railway station in the late 1890s and was finalised as a museum in 1986. We spend hours walking through the thousands of exhibits and through the large hall. Once we had a quick visit to the gift shop, we left for a walk along the Seine.

The morning was fresh and was sunny, and it was almost time for lunch. We had free roam of small lanes of food and souvenirs. From fresh crepes and baguettes, there was endless choice.

After lunch, we endured a short walk to the Musée Picasso. This newly restored museum was exclusively Picasso’s works and memorabilia. As the Art students were hyped to see works studied in class, others snapped photos of the more well known works. With over 4 levels of Picasso, this place was very busy with tourists of all cultures. Once we had our fix of Picasso, we left bound for the Pompidou.

Centre Georges Pompidou was a short walk down from Musée Picasso. This building is completed, but looks as though it is still under construction. It’s more of a love at second sight. It seems very much out of place in the city of Paris. We sat out in the sun admiring the architecture before we entered. We browsed the contemporary gift shop, amused by the quirky and unusual gifts. We slowly moved up the long array of escalators to the top of the Pompidou where we discovered that our booking didn’t cover some exhibitions. We walked up and down the escalators trying to find what our tickets covered when we finally found the entrance. We wandered the gallery viewing well known and popular contemporary art.

We slowly made our way back to our hotel via a street filled with various food options. Some had a budget sandwich from Monoprix while others tasted a wide variety of different cultures. We made it back to our hotel after an early dinner where we endured Mr Clark raving about “the food street near the Pompidou.” We stayed in until dark where we later left for an ice cream run, as if Paris isn’t cold enough? We should get some sleep for Day 7.

Highlights: Early morning museum visit, Picasso Museum’s fantastic WiFi, going up and down the escalator in the Pompidou, late night Gelato run.

Jack Robinson