On Thursday, the day began with a trip to the Musée d’Orsay. The professor led us through the building after a brief delay due to a protest and car accident on the way, showing us paintings by Rosa Bonheur, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Gustave Courbet, and many more. Below is a photo of The Desperate Man by Gustave Courbet, which is a self-portrait of the artist. Apologies for how small the actual painting is within the photo, it would not let me edit it.

Some of my favorite paintings are by Vincent van Gogh, pictured below. The first picture is The Church at Auvers, which was a surprise and delight to see. The Church at Auvers is a painting by van Gogh that was featured in the Doctor Who episode about the artist- I was extremely excited to see it in real life. The second picture is Bedroom in Arles, a remarkably famous work of his that is often referenced alongside his name. The third picture below this paragraph is one of his many self-portraits.

Another exciting sight was Ploughing in the Nivernais by Rosa Bonheur, arguably the most famous and talented Animaliste in human history. Her history is very interesting and riveting- I highly recommend doing a deep dive on her.

The last pictures I will show are of the museum itself, which used to be a train station before falling out of disrepair- only to be saved and restored into a museum.

The rest of the day after the Musée d’Orsay was up to us- I chose to go back to the hotel to hang out with a friend after some brief shopping with a classmate (I bought a Labubu, shame on me), took a nap, and then 3 girls and I went to a bar that night. Overall, we had a wonderful time!