Musée d'Orsay & Saint-Germain-des-Prés★★★
The Musée d'Orsay, housed in a magnificent former train station from 1900, holds the world's most important collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art. What the Louvre is for the Old Masters, the Orsay is for the modern: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet — they all hang here in a density and quality found nowhere else in the world.
The highlights of the collection: Monet's Water Lilies series and the Rouen Cathedral, Renoir's Bal du Moulin de la Galette (the happiest painting in art history), Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône and Bedroom in Arles, Manet's scandalous Luncheon on the Grass, Degas' Ballet Scenes. The huge station clock on the 5th floor offers an iconic view through the clock face to Sacré-Cœur and the Parisian rooftops — one of the most photographed spots in the city.
The surrounding district Saint-Germain-des-Prés was the intellectual heart of Europe in the 1940s–60s: Sartre and Beauvoir philosophized in the Café de Flore (coffee €7.50), Hemingway wrote in the Les Deux Magots (coffee €7.80), Miles Davis played jazz in the cellar bars. Today, Saint-Germain has become elegant and expensive, but the charm of the antique dealers, independent bookstores, and galleries in Rue de Seine and Rue Jacob remains. The Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés (542 AD) is the oldest church in Paris.
💡 Tipp
Thursday evening, the Orsay is open until 9:45 pm and significantly less crowded. The café on the upper floor behind the large clock is worth a stop — not for the food, but for the view. Combo ticket Orsay + Orangerie (Monet's large water lily panoramas): €22.
