Musée Jacquemart-André and Parc Monceau

Sorry, all. We've got to rewind back to about two weeks ago. I forgot to write a post about my favorite of the prescribed walks we did as part of the study abroad agenda.

The first stop on the walk was my favorite museum and best museum experience in Paris. The Jacquemart-André is a private museum, and thus a little more pricey, but it's worth it. It was actually the private residence of a wealthy bourgeois couple during the second half of the 19th century. The original decor is still up, which is part of what makes the museum so worth the money.

The original, permanent collection of paintings is amazing. There's a whole mini-museum within the museum itself dedicated to Italian Renaissance painting. Beautiful. My two favorite paintings in the permanent collection were Tête de vieillard by Jean-Honoré Fragonard: and Les Pèlerins d'Emmaüs by Rembrandt:
The visit just kept getting better, though. The temporary exhibit of the Spanish Masters, "From El Greco to Dalí," was incredible! Walking in, I hardly knew anything about the Spanish tradition, but fell quite in love with it. Dalí's religious works, like The Ascension of Christ? Incredible:
I was enchanted by Hermen Anglada Camarasa's Feria de Valencia.
Definitely inspired by Gustav Klimt. I like it a lot.

After the uplifting and inspiring museum visit, I headed to Parc Monceau, which I've decided is one of my favorite's in Paris. It's not overrun by tourists like the Tuileries. It's tranquil. There's also a lot of open grassy areas to sit on. We love "non-interdite pelouse," as we have dubbed it. Plus, that quarter of Paris, the 8th Arrondissement, is beautiful. Rue Rembrandt that leads to the park is one of the most architecturally diverse streets I've ever seen. I plan to go back and will throw some photos of it on the blog.