Week in Paris with the Charles Family -Les Musées-

I think the week of November 20th through the 27th was one of the fastest weeks of my life!  The Charles family took Paris by storm and we covered a lot of ground along the way.  I think it would be next to impossible to cover it all but I am going to post some pictures and share some highlights as best I can.  Very thankfully, we were able to do some of the things I love most about Paris i.e. visit the Neuilly open air market, visit the Louvre as a family with my art professor and go to the Louis Vuitton flagship store plus we still got to do lots of things that have been on my list of things to do before leaving like the Rodin Museum, the Orangerie Museum and the Hermes flagship store in Paris :)

Musee Rodin
My regal father:

Mom & "The Thinker" in the Rodin Museum gardens

Austin with "The Thinker"

Love this, Camille Claudel's "The Waltz"

Rodin's "The Kiss"

(click on the link, then scroll down for information)

We (Mom, Dad, Austin and I) also visited the Centre Pompidou one evening after my grammar class.  I was so excited that Austin enjoyed Nancy Spero's work that is on exhibit there, now.  Here is an example of her artwork: source

Her work is absolutely incredible and inspiring. We were fortunate to have the time to sit and see/hear a video about her life as a feminist and an anti-war activist. She embodied talent, power, intelligence and grace up until her last days. 

Nancy Spero:

On Friday, our last day in Paris, we went to Musee de l'Orangerie 

(photo credit)

where the five of us had an extraordinary time soaking up incredible art by Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Rousseau and Laurencin.

I'm a genius and I found this (okay, well, it was pretty easy to find...) link to share with you all to give you a feel of the enormity of the Monet exhibit. Two rooms, eight grand paintings. I cannot describe the size well enough and the pictures that I took with my little digital don't do the paintings justice, so click here for the virtual tour of Monet's water lilies! 

Aussie & Daddy:

Initially, I uploaded tons of pictures from the Monet exhibit but... I've decided to only share two "up close" pictures because the quality of the other pictures that I took is so bad.

So, voila, some water lilies:

Moving right along...

The permanent exhibit is made up of several of my most favoritest artists (listed above.)

So, here are some of the photos I took of my favs:

Pierre-Auguste RENOIR

Henri MATISSE

Andre DERAIN

Paul GAUGUIN

Marie LAURENCIN

We ate really, really well. I am updating my "Lillian's Guide to Paris" with lots of places to eat in Paris- good, simple, affordable and fresh places!  So, don't hesitate to request a revised copy.