681a French Impressionism; Perfect Week in Paris; Appreciating the Louvre

0:00Rick Steves:They were rebels, outcasts of the Paris art scene. And today, you can view the works of Impressionist painters that we so enjoy at the places where Rodin, Renoir, and Monet created their masterpieces. Every time I'm visiting Giverny, I feel like if I'm walking through one of his paintings. Take a closer look at the Louvre, and you can find stories that the great art museum can reveal about Paris over the centuries. The Louvre is one of the great architectural and cultural masterpieces in Paris in itself, not just for what it contains. And don't get upset if your plans for a perfect week in Paris get disrupted by street demonstrations and transit delays.

0:40Rick Steves:It's all part of your authentic experience. I mean, all of my life, we've been going through protests. So I would say the best week in Paris is a week with a protest or a week with a strike. Otherwise, it's not Paris. It's not France. Find out what a visit to Paris can do for you in the hour ahead. It's Travel with Rick Steves. What should you do to give yourself a perfect week in Paris? A pair of French tour guides have recommendations in just a bit on today's all-Paris edition of Travel with Rick Steves. And architecture critic James Gardner returns with pointers for your first time at the massive Louvre Art Museum.

1:17Rick Steves:Even if you don't go in, the building itself can tell you stories about the history of France. Let's start the hour with expert advice for enjoying the Impressionist art that we treasure today. It all started in Paris. At first, it was too radical for most back in the late 19th century, but a group of artists in Paris kept experimenting with capturing the vagaries of light and shadow on their canvases and making the outdoors their studio. Today, we call the effects of their short brush strokes and combining colors Impressionism. And what better place to enjoy their masterpieces than where these artists lived.

1:55Rick Steves:Guiding us right now on Travel with Rick Steves to the top places for viewing Impressionist art up close in and around Paris is Elisabeth Van Hest. Elisabeth visited Paris from her home in the Netherlands more than 40 years ago. She liked it so much, she's made Paris her home ever since. Elisabeth, bonjour. Thank you. First of all, Elisabeth, how do you define Impressionism? If you think of Impressionism, It is amazing because everybody knows the world. It was, in fact, never introduced by the painters themselves or art specialists. No, it was, in fact, a negative criticism. Because, you know, when the painters who started to paint in the open air and use a different kind of techniques, not a composition anymore, not mixing your colors on your palette.

2:45Rick Steves:No, they started to paint directly on the canvas. and you, as a spectator, you are going to mix the colors. So they would dab two colors together next to each other on the canvas and it would mix between the canvas and your eyes and they wouldn't mix it on their palette. Yes. And that gives it a more vibrancy. Exactly. And these painters, you know, they could only become well-known through the official exhibitions. There were no art galleries in those days. So since so many painters have been refused on those official exhibitions in the Salon, in the Louvre, in the Luxembourg Palace. Well, they decided to organize their exhibition themselves.

3:24Rick Steves:And they did that in a place owned by a photographer called Nada. It was in the year 1874. And, of course, all these young painters, they had to display their artwork. And Monet, he took one of his paintings that he had painted in the harbor of Le Havre, where he grew up. And he gave it quickly a title saying Impression Soleil Le Vent. impression sunrise and there an art critic came inside and said ha ha ha look at that that is called impressionism and this word became well known although the painters themselves called themselves independent because they were stepping away from the conservative salon the mainstream and they were sort of rebels and then the critics said it's just a scant impression just as an insult but they embraced it and then it was impressionism exactly And it's a beautiful thing because we can paint reality beautifully by this point, and now we're going beyond that, getting impressions of the sun and the shadows and the colors dappled in the shade.

4:25Rick Steves:And you find that when you're in Paris. Now, if you're going to go to Paris, Elizabeth, and you want to see the best of the Impressionists, what would your top four or five sites be? Of course, you go first to the Orsay Museum. That is the largest collection. This is, well, paradise for all those who like Impressionism. So that's the Orsay Gallery, the former big train station right along the Seine River, which is now turned into the great museum collecting all the collections of post-Louvre art. The Louvre goes until about 1850 or something, and then after that we see it now together in the Orsay.

4:56Rick Steves:Exactly. And you see work until the beginning of the 20th century, so also post-Impressionism. Then you shouldn't miss, of course, the Orangerie. And now the water lilies by Monet, who were donated by the great artists to France and the French after the First World War as a gift of peace. Well, if you go there inside, you find peace in yourself. Now, this is the Orangerie. It was a place where they kept the orange trees originally for the palace associated with the Louvre. And then the new purpose is to contain art. And I understand Monet actually designed the way his water lilies would be situated there.

5:34Rick Steves:But he never saw it himself. He wanted it to be shown to the public after his death because he was aware of the fact that the times had changed. And, you know, after the First World War, art will change very much. Now, if you want to see more of Monet's great paintings in Paris, what's another gallery you would go to? I would say go to Marmontel. Don't miss Marmontel Museum. That is where the son of Monet donated all the artwork that was still in Giverny, as you see. He had one son who inherited. When the son died, Michel, he donated it to the Marmottan Museum. And it's a beautiful mansion also on the edge of Paris, the Marmottan Museum, M-A-R-M-A-T-T-A-N.

6:19Rick Steves:We often think of Impressionism as paint on canvas, but sculpture, carving marble, can also be Impressionist. If we want to get a dose of that, what should we do? Well, then you should go and not miss the Rodin Museum. It is the place where Rodin had his last studio, the last years of his life, and suddenly the idea came up to donate his artwork to the state so that they could transform that mention. In his studio. And you can see right where Rodin, the great sculptor, and he happened to be working at the same time as Monet and these concrete impressionist painters. Yes, they were nearly born on the same day, only two days.

6:54Rick Steves:Is that right? Yes. Now, you know, we're all tied into a certain medium when we're thinking about art, but music is part of this also. Yes. Is it any coincidence that to me some music feels impressionistic? Well, you should listen to Claude Debussy, for instance. Was he working in the same decade? Yes, he was. So there you go. A little later, but yes. But still impressionist in style. Yes. This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're delving into some slice of culture from far away as we do each week here on this radio show, and today we're joined by Elizabeth Van Hest talking about impressionism in and around Paris.

7:28Rick Steves:Our phone number is 877-333-7425, and you can email us at radio at ricksteves.com. Kristen's on the phone in Delray Beach, Florida. Kristen, thanks for your call. Thanks. It's great to be able to talk to you. I just want to say how much I enjoyed seeing the Marmottan Museum last May, and I am a great fan of Monet, and to be able to see the painting that he did which inspired the term Impressionism was very exciting. It is fun to see what I think fairly can be called the first Impressionist painting, and to think of the fun that these guys were just, you know, perturbing all of the mainstream artists.

8:06Rick Steves:And then the winners were the rebels who broke away from the salon and started their own movement. And of course, it was born in Paris and we can see the great sights there. And Kristen, wasn't it fun getting out to the Montmartin Museum? It really was. And we're going back again. We really felt we didn't see it all. I enjoyed an impressionist experience just going through the park outside of the Montmartin to see the kids on the carousel there and just think this is the same sort of delightful scene that would have inspired an impressionist painter back in the 1880s. Kristen, thanks for your call.

8:36Yeah, thanks. Nice to talk to you. Bye.

8:37Rick Steves:You too. Once Elizabeth Van Hest saw Paris, she fell in love with the city and has made it her home ever since. Elizabeth is a licensed national guide to the amazing art scene in Paris and across France. We have more with this week's show notes at ricksteves.com slash radio. Joanne's calling in from Tustin, California. Hi, it's great to be on. I'm a big Monet fan. And when I was in Paris, I wanted to go visit Monet's garden in Traverny. And it was a bit of far away having to take train and the bus and walking there, standing in line. But when I stepped into that garden, it was just amazing. I saw just parts of his paintings everywhere in his garden.

9:25Rick Steves:It is an amazing experience, and let's make sure our listeners know what you're talking about here. Joanne, it's Giverny, and that is G-I-V-E-R-N-Y. I believe it's about 50 miles west of Paris, and you get there by train. You go to a town called Vernon, V-E-R-N-O-N, and then that's just a few miles from Giverny, and you make your way from there. But this is the beautiful sort of farmhouse that Monet spent his last 40 years, and he created his pastoral paradise with a pond and floating lilies and weeping willow trees and the Japanese Bridge. And when you walk through there, you can just imagine this artistic genius being in his glory there.

10:02Rick Steves:Elizabeth, tell us about Giverny a little bit. Every time I'm visiting Giverny, I feel like if I'm walking through one of his paintings. And it's always a pleasure. Don't say if you pick a day when it is raining that it's not interesting. It is. And this is the beautiful thing about Impressionism. You could paint a different painting standing on the same spot, looking at the same garden at different times of day and in different weather. And from an impressionist's point of view, they're completely different because the physical substance is just the rack upon which the colors and the light is hanging.

10:37Rick Steves:And that's why Monet picked out so many series, series of haystacks, series of poplars, series of the Cathire of Rouen, but then the series, of course, of his water lilies. About 30 years, he will dedicate his life to water lilies paintings. And the last, let's say, 10 or 15 years, he will work on these huge canvases that we can see now in the Orchery. This was his opus magnum, really, this water lilies. Joanne, thanks for your call, and thanks for reminding us about Giverny. Thank you, Joanne. Bye-bye. Elizabeth, when we're talking about Impressionism and how Paris inspired these great artists, and they were so revolutionary, today, as travelers in the 21st century, in this great city of Paris, how would you walk around and just get an impressionistic joy out of what you see actually today in real life?

11:26Rick Steves:Well, first of all, you can go to the Tuileries Gardens, painted so often by Sisley, Pissarro, and Monet, that I consider as the real impressionist. You sit along the River Seine, and you see the sun reflected in the water, and you are with Monet, who said, when I look at that, I close my eyes, and what remains in my mind, I reflect it on my canvas and it will be an artwork it will be a painting of course you go to Montmartre there's less very little left from the original Montmartre how the painters have known it but there is still a wine garden there are two windmills wooden windmills that remind you of the time of the Impressionists and then I think I would take you to the Bois de Boulogne because that is the whole period of Napoleon III you know you can still rent a little boat little barge and you roll exactly like in the paintings of the Impressionists.

12:24Rick Steves:And that's the Grand Park just on the edge of Paris where you can really enjoy that sort of love of life that the Impressionists so beautifully captured on canvas. Of course you should also go behind the Saint-Lazare railway station. People like, painters like Caillebotte, they were very impressed by the new constructions. Don't forget that Impressionism is also the Paris of Napoleon III. So this is part of the new industrial age and they were capturing the wonder of that age as well. And you know, Monet went to San Azar railway station. He even said to the chief in the train station, stop that train, I have to paint it.

12:58Rick Steves:Elizabeth Van Hest, you're inspiring us all to go back to Paris with a little bit different eyes so we can appreciate the impressionist overlay of that beautiful city. Thank you very much for sharing. It was a pleasure. Au revoir. Thank you. What should first-timers visiting the Louvre do to tackle Paris' massive art museum? In just a bit, we'll hear how even the building itself can tell you a lot about France. But first, tour guides from Paris offer tips for designing a perfect week in the French capital. Bonjour. It's Travel with Rick Steves. Today, we're featuring interviews from the best of Travel with Rick Steves.

13:34Rick Steves:There's nearly two decades of radio interviews that you can listen to from our show archives. Feel free to browse around for more. It's at ricksteves.com slash radio. Ernest Hemingway once called Paris a movable feast, a city that stays with you. As romantic as the city of lights can be, it's not just for lovers. History buffs, lovers of great art and architecture, and gourmands of all stripes fall in love with the city as well. Paris-based guides Veronique Savoy and Arnaud Savignon join us now in our studio to help you plan the perfect week in Paris. Arnaud, Veronique, thanks for joining us. Thank you very much.

14:15Rick Steves:Thank you. Now, Veronique, you used to live right here in Seattle, and now you live in Paris. Are you French? Are you American? What's your story? I am both. I was born in France, but I'm also an American citizen. I lived here for 23 years, and I relocated back to France. So I'm a Parisian once again. And you've got a foot in both cultures, so you're a good teacher. You can understand the American confusion with things that are complicatedly French. What's one little extra important angle that you'd give a visitor coming to Paris? An important angle? I would try and explain the difference between the Paris that people know, you know, when the big stereotypes about Paris, the Grand Paris, close to the Seine River, the tourist sites.

14:58I would show them, I think, neighborhoods that are a little bit off the beaten path where people live, which is not all sitting outside a cafe and sipping a glass of wine.

15:09Rick Steves:There's a reality. The tourists have these clichédic images almost of strolling the Champs-Elysees or going up the Eiffel Tower or cruising the Seine. Yeah, and there's that. But of course, but there's people in work-a-day neighborhoods and you can take the metro out and visit a neighborhood. Arnaud, I hear that Paris is a collection of neighborhoods, really. Yeah. Talk a little bit about that. Well, it's like you can have a lot of little villages in Paris. That's what the joy of living in Paris would be. you could be in the 18th arrondissement and then have the feeling of being in Montmartre or you could be by the Republic Square walking along the canal and you feel everywhere it's like a little village you have all the shops nearby all the cafes nearby you have like very close life in fact you don't move very much from your neighborhood So that probably is your world your arrondissement or your neighborhood and then of course if you want to go to the museum or to some concert or a nice restaurant you can hop in the metro and in 15 minutes you can be there.

16:06Rick Steves:When there is a metro, of course. We've got to talk about these strikes and things that are going on in Paris. But before we dig into all of that, I just want to think of the best week in Paris. Now, we don't need to worry about the day-by-day, but I'd like to hear from both of you, if you had a visitor for, say, a week, what is the four or five really important things that you have to experience, would you say, if you're planning a trip? Veronique? I think it's very stressful for visitors, especially if it's their first or second visit or if they know they won't be back right away. there's big pressure to see a lot of the big sites.

16:35And so people end up running all day long. So my advice would be, that's great, we need to see the big sites, but also try and take your time. Take a deep breath. Have a day, an afternoon, where you actually stroll. We call it flané, F-L-A-N-E-R, flané, which means to stroll. And that's what Parisians do. Take your time, sit outside a café, go see a photo exhibit if you want to have brunch somewhere. Parisians love brunch.

17:01Rick Steves:You could have a delightful day just strolling and adventuring with no real list of sites. Yes. So it would be very important to do, I think, big cities like Paris, New York, London. They can be exhausting. Take your time. Yeah. So that's very good advice. Arnaud, if you were thinking of a handful of essential famous sites. Like the big days, you mean? Yeah, the big days. What you can't miss in one week. Well, of course, you have to go to the Louvre. I think you have to go to the Orsay Museum. You have to go to the Ile de la Cité, see the Saint-Chapelle, walk by Notre Dame, of course. You have to go through the Latin Quarter, the Marais District.

17:37Rick Steves:The Marais, yeah. Luxembourg Gardens. And that's really, well, of course, Champs -Élysées, Eiffel Tower. Okay, there you go. That's what you can't miss. Veronique, is there anything else that you would add to Arnaud's list? No, he gave a pretty good list, I think, of the landmarks, the basics. It sounds a bit like a cliché, perhaps. Ah, they're clichés, but it's Paris. Yes, it is. You've got to do it. Now, if you think the museums, I like to think of the Louvre and the Orsay as connecting each other. One is until about 1850 and the other is from 1850 on, right? Well, very precisely, actually, the Louvre, it's everything from the very beginning until 1848.

18:13Rick Steves:Okay. And then the Orsay Museum is all the connections between 1848 and 1914. And then after 1914, you have to go to the Pompidou Center or the Palace of Tokyo, which is modern contemporary art. There you go. Okay, so it's three parts. Mm-hmm. Okay, so then, of course, there's many, many more museums, but that's good. Tour guides Veronique Savoy and Arnaud Sauvignon have shown hundreds of Americans the highlights of La Belle, France. They're recommending how to have the perfect week in Paris right now on Travel with Rick Steves. Arnaud also offers accommodations and day tours on an eight-person houseboat from a space a little downstream from Paris.

18:50Rick Steves:And after living in the U.S. for many years, Veronique moved back to France and now is based in the historic town of Tours in the Loire Valley. She posts walking tour videos of France with Vero on YouTube and Facebook and at her French Girl in Seattle website. We provide links with this week's show at ricksteves.com slash radio. You talk about the districts. We've got the Ile de la Cité. That's the island in the middle of the scene. And in a lot of ways, that's sort of where Paris was born, I think. That's the beginning of it, yes. Back in Roman times. Even before that. Before that. from the Gauls.

19:26Rick Steves:And of course, when you say Gauls, those are the people that were there when the Romans conquered the Gauls. So we've got the Ile de L 'Ecité and then we've got the Marais that you mentioned and that's the, what's the Marais? It's more like a very elegant district where you have mansions from the 17th century and 18th century too. Lovely little shops also. Great shops. Wonderful restaurants. I love the Marais. You have also with the Jewish quarter. The Jewish quarter. Yes, also the Gag quarter too. It's just all about history. Quaint, narrow streets. The Marais used to be, it means literally swamp.

20:06Rick Steves:Swamps, yes. So it was the place where the poor people would go. It was a marshy land in a way. And then it was cheap rent, so the artists would go there. And then it became trendy, and then it got too expensive for the artists. It just went through cycles. Before the war, you would find mostly carpenters, plumbers, all these kind of small professions you see and today it's totally gentrified and great museums wonderful little museums plus a couple of major museums and one of the best my favorite was always the Musée Carnaval the Carnaval museum and it's the history of Paris the history of the French Revolution it's inside one of those hotels particuliers former private mansions you can't lose there and the entrance is free because it's part of the Paris Musée network so if you want history let's say you like Napoleon or the French Revolution you're curious about or you know Mansart and roofs and whatever all this great French history you got it right there in the Carnavalet oh the Carnavalet it's fabulous there's even a mini there was a model of the guillotine remember yeah there was a model of the guillotine and it's in a hotel explain Veronique the hotel Particulier what is that what is hotel because we see the word hotel and we think it's a place to rent a bed so no the word hotel has several meanings one of them is obviously where we go with our tour members.

21:24And another one is Hotel de Ville, which is the city hall, hotel of the city. And then the third use is Hotel Particulier. And this is what we call those beautiful private mansions, such as the ones that can be found in Le Marais and other neighborhoods in Paris.

21:38Rick Steves:What's your favorite mansion to visit in Paris? My favorite mansion? Well, Carnavalet would be pretty high on my list, but recently I went to another museum that also sits in Le Marais, and it's called the Cognac Jai Museum. and it also sits in another beautiful connection. And it's dedicated to the 18th century and it also sits in a... In fact, Le Marais is full of places. What is the name of that second one dedicated to the... Musée Cognac-Jay. Cognac-Jay. Cognac-Jay. It's the name of the family. Say that with an American accent, Veronique. Cognac-Jay. Cognac-Jay. There you go. Come on. No, there's one hotel that I love, Jacques-Marc-André.

22:17Rick Steves:Ah, Jacques-Marc-André. Describe that. It's a beautiful mention. This one is located further west. It's on the Boulevard Houseman. And it's a 19th century mansion, which was belonging to very rich people. Nelly Jacquemart and Edouard André, everything separated them. One was Protestant, the other one was Catholic. One had fortune, the other one had nothing. And actually through the fortune of the husband and the knowledge of the wife, combined together, they gathered an incredible collection of Italian paintings, French paintings, along with furniture because it's actually a place where they lived.

22:54Rick Steves:That's what's special. It's like they lived there. It's like you have these incredibly wealthy friends that love art. They had no children. They had nothing to do with their money and their time except collectibles. So it's a home which is totally fabished. It's really so fascinating. Jacques-Marc André. Or no, you say it like a Frenchman. Jacques-Marc André. Oh, it's because I'm French. So Jacques-Marc André. And Verini, say it so we can understand it. Jacques-Marc André. Oh, goodness. See, if you lived in the States for 20 years, you could speak like one of us Yankees. Butchering your French words.

23:28Rick Steves:I'm so sorry. Pardonnez-moi. Pardon. Pardon, Arnaud. Pardon. Pardon, Arnaud. I'll forgive you. This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're talking about the perfect week in Paris. Our guests are Véronique Savoy and Arnaud Savignon. Our phone number is 877-333-7425. And Stephanie's calling from Boston. Stephanie, thanks for your call. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I've been so eager to tell you about the place that I visited that was one of the most amazing experiences I've had in Paris. And it's called the Atelier des Lumières. Oh, yes. It's very big right now. I haven't seen it yet. We've got two thumbs up here.

24:06Rick Steves:Tell us about it, Stephanie. Oh, it's an absolute must. It's in the 11th arrondissement, and it's a huge warehouse-sized space, If you could imagine that, all the walls painted black. And paintings by famous artists like Renoir, Matisse, Chagall, Pizarro, are projected from 150 different projectors on the ceiling, on the walls, on the floor. And it's wonderful. And not only that, but it's accompanied by music, a playlist I would like to have for myself. Just beautiful music. It's an amazing visual experience. and you can see little kids coming up to the wall and trying to touch it because it seems so real.

24:50Wow. It's a must-do.