Portraits and Pirates

Yesterday, I finally made it down to the Musee d'Orsay, after cutting through the Tuileries to watch a few mini-sailboats afloat in the fountain, commanded by children with sticks.

Anyways, back to the museum. If you're not familiar, the Musee d'Orsay was originally a train station built to coincide with the Exposition Universelle in 1900. Platforms were too short for modern trains, so instead of being torn down it was eventually converted to a museum in the 1970s. Lucky for us European cities generally believe in preserving history. It's a fantastic space, open and airy as you'd expect - and so, much like the Getty in LA, I found myself more drawn to photographing the architecture than to the artwork itself. Though, unlike the Getty - there are some first-rate works here - so I did do some wandering through the impressionists and sculpture areas. Unfortunately, the Picasso exhibit and photography areas were closed off for renovation/additions. Food options for vegetarians were once again non-existent (would you like chicken, ham or chicken?), so I didn't last as long in the museum as I'd have liked.

After a little dose of french culture, I decided to take in a little high-end American artistic expression for balance. Headed east to Odeon and grabbed a slice of pizza before sitting down to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It's about what I expected - cheesy, trying unsuccessfully to switch between drama and comedy... Keira Knightly's attempted 'Braveheart'-style speech may have in fact been the funniest thing in the movie, though I'm going to assume that was unintentional. Still, it was visually pleasing and Jack Sparrow is always fun to watch... so, as a much-needed hit of American cinema, it did the trick. I noticed that the french theatres (at least the UGC chain) seem to reverse things and do previews first and the commercials second, just before the movie. Seems wise from a business perspective - more people in their seats while the commercials are running. However, gotta tell ya, from a consumer perspective - unbelievably annoying. Just hammers home my great joy in paying 9.50 (this time it's euros) to be advertised to for 20 minutes.

Off to Dublin tomorrow.