The Two-Day Museum Pass Challenge

In Paris, one can purchase a 2-, 3-, or 5-day Museum Pass. It entitles you to get into most of the major museums and landmarks, and also allows you to bypass lines. The catch is that, without quantifying the value of skipping the lines, one must see between 6 and 8 sites in 2 days for the pass to pay off. We did it, and it was fun because with the exception of the Musee d'Orsay, we stuck mostly to smaller museums and sights.

Statues in front of the Musee d'Orsay


The Great Hall at the Musee d'Orsay, a beaux arts train station built for the 1900 World Fair as a more central station than the Gare d'Austerlitz. It closed as a train station in 1973 and existed in precarious limbo for years until President Mitterand oversaw conversion from a train depot to a museum of Impressionist Art. It opened in its new incarnation in 1986.


The original clock still overlooks the Great Hall.


Some statues on the main floor:







and a tile mosaic

Next up was Napoleon's Tomb. We entered by way of the courtyard at the Military Museum. Just as we walked in a group of soldiers paraded in behind us and lined up in formation.





Hey look, it's San Francisco City Hall!


The dome inside the tomb



and a statue of the emperor



On to Rodin . . .




Next stop, the archaeological crypt under Notre Dame, where you can see the foundations of Lutece, the original Roman settlement on Ile de la Cite . . .



And finally (remember, this is only day one), the Conciergerie where the king's concierge once lived and where, during the Revolution, prisoners were held before being executed.

It was a pretty stark, bleak place. This photo is on the ground floor in a dining hall that seated 2,000. Theresa helps give the fireplace a little perspective.