Normandy, Brittany & the Best of the North_ With Paris (Fodor's) - Fodor's [130]
QUICK BITES: If those Déjeuner sur l’Herbe paintings make you think about lunch, stop at the middle floor’s Musée d’Orsay Restaurant (01–45–49–47–03) in the former train station’s sumptuous dining room. Train food, however, this is not: an elegant lunch is available 11:30 to 2:30, high tea from 3:30 to 5:40 (except on Thursday, when dinner is served instead, from 7 to 9:30 PM).For a simpler snack anytime, visit the top-floor Café des Hauteurs and drink in its panoramic view across the Seine toward Montmartre.
Musée Rodin.
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) briefly made his home and studio in the Hôtel Biron, a grand 18th-century hôtel particulier (private mansion) that now houses the museum dedicated to his work. He died rich and famous, but many of the sculptures that earned him his place in history were originally greeted with contempt by a public unprepared for his powerful brand of sexuality and raw physicality. If you’re pressed for time, buy a ticket (€1) for the gardens only, where most of Rodin’s well-known sculptures are found, such as The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, inspired by the monumental bronze doors of Italian Renaissance churches. The museum’s interior, though showing its age, still serves as an elegantly creaky setting for two floors of Rodin’s work. There’s also a room of impressive works by Camille Claudel (1864–1943), Rodin’s student and longtime mistress. A remarkable sculptor in her own right, her torturous relationship with Rodin eventually drove her out of his studio—and out of her mind. In 1913 she was packed off to an asylum, where she remained until her death. | 79 rue de Varenne, Invalides or Eiffel Tower | 75007 | 01–44–18–61–10 | www.musee-rodin.fr | Station: €6, €1 gardens only | Apr.–Oct., Tues.–Sun. 9:30–5:45; Nov.–Mar., Tues.–Sun. 9:30–4:45 | Station: Varenne.
WORTH NOTING FROM ORSAY TO ST-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS
Fodor’s Choice | Cour du Commerce St-André.
Like an 18th-century engraving come to life, this charming street arcade is perhaps the prettiest nook of the Left Bank. A remnant of ancien Paris with its enormous uneven cobblestones and famed for its rabble-rousing inhabitants—journalist Jean-Paul Marat ran the Revolutionary newspaper L’Ami du Peuple, at No. 8, and the agitator Georges Danton lived at No. 20—it is also home to Le Procope, Paris’s oldest café (now a very fancy restaurant). This passageway also contains a turret from the 12th-century wall of Philippe-Auguste (visible through the windows of the Catalogne tourist office). Just pass the turret is a gate leading to Paris’s most beautiful cul-de-sac: the 17th-century Cour de Rohan courtyard—if the gate is open you’ll recognize the setting used for Chez Mamita in Vincente Minelli’s Gigi film. | Linking Bd. St-Germain and Rue St-André-des-Arts, St-Germain-des-Prés | 75006 | Station: Odéon.
Musée Delacroix.
The final home of artist Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) contains only a small collection of his sketches and drawings, but you can see the studio he had built in the large and lovely garden at the back to work on the frescoes he created for St-Sulpice Church, where they remain on display today. The museum also plays host to temporary exhibitions, such as Delacroix’s experiments with photography. France’s foremost Romantic painter had the good luck to live on Place Furstenberg, one of the smallest, most romantic squares in Paris, which is worth a visit in itself. | 6 rue Furstenberg, St-Germain-des-Prés | 75006 | 01–44–41–86–50 | www.musee-delacroix.fr | €5 | Wed.–Mon. 9:30–5 | Station: St-Germain-des-Prés.
MONTMARTRE
Montmartre has become almost too charming