The Orsay’s ground floor is a large space filled with mostly Academic sculpture beneath the high, decorative station ceiling. To either side, one finds a series of small rooms that feature some of the earliest works in the museum. These include a number of gems of 19th century art, such as Cabanel’s "The Birth of Venus"; "The Poor Fisherman" by Puvis de Chavannes; Millet’s "The Gleaners"; "Luncheon on the Grass", an early work by Monet that shows the artist’s developing style; and Degas’ monumental, enigmatic portrait of the "Bellili Family", to name just a few. It’s here too that one finds Manet’s audacious, groundbreaking "Olympia", just as unapologetic and tongue-in-cheek today, as when the painting first shocked the world in the mid-1860’s. Speaking of shocking, it’s in a space parallel to the museum’s main entrance that one finds a fine collection of works by Courbet, including "The Burial at Ornans", and "The Origin of the World", a close-up of a faceless woman’s very private area. All this, just on the first floor! The museum’s collection also includes Carpeaux’s sculpture "Le Génie de la Danse", which caused a stir when it was incorporated into the decorative groups on the front of the Opéra Garnier (a copy of it is still there today), several sculptures by Rodin, a marvellous selection of Art Nouveau furniture and toilet articles, and several rooms of works by the Nabis.

It’s top two floors that are the most visited, though, with room after room devoted to just about every major Impressionist (Monet, Degas, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Cassat, etc.), Post-Impressionist (Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc.), and Neo-Impressionist (Signac, Seurat, etc.), imaginable. Plus, there’s an incredible view of the Sacre Coeur through a large window/clock. Not to be missed: several fine Van Gogh’s, including The Artist’s Bedroom; Toulouse-Lautrec’s two large canvasses depicting a typical evening at the Moulin Rouge, with La Goulue and Valentin le Désossé dancing in the midst of a crowd of Belle Époque celebrities; Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother, a.k.a. Whistler’s Mother; Degas’ wonderfully expressive Les Repasseuses, Caillebotte’s Floor Scrapers; Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe... In a long, columned hall, one finds Seurat’s Three Views of a Model and other works; sculptures and paintings by Gauguin, including panels from his home in Tahiti and La Belle Angel; and Douanier Rousseau’s "The Snake Charmer". In the various pastel galleries, where the darkness is illuminated only by low lights near each work, the colors of drawings by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Redon, and others, glow vivid as wonderful exotic flowers.

What more needs to be said? The Musée d’Orsay is a 19th- and early 20th-century art lover’s paradise, not to mention a Who’s Who of artists whose works have forever changed our perception and appreciation of art, of time and light. This museum should not be missed!