Musee d’Orsay is one of the best-known museums in France as well as in the whole world. It houses many French art works of the 19th-20th centuries, including paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography. The collection of the impressionist masterpieces is one of the best in the world.

The museum is situated on the left bank of the Seine River, not far from the Louvre. The building used to be a railway station Gare d’Orsay with the hotel attached to it. But in the 1939 the station was closed, and the hotel ceased to exist in 1973. The Paris government allowed to turn the building into the museum, and in 1973 Musee d’Orsay was opened to general public. The museum is a home for the collection of the 19th century art as well as French avant-garde of the beginning of the 20th century. Its pride and joy are the collections of impressionist and post-impressionist painters, who felt free to create after the French academy lost its total control over the French art in the revolutionary year of 1848.

There is a wonderful selection of works by such revolutionary painters as Manet, Millet and Courbet. Manet, one of the founders of the Impressionism, is represented by his famous and scandalous “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe”(1863) and “Olympia”(1863). Courbet’s two monumental canvases, the Funeral at Ornans (1851) and The Painter’s Studio (1855) hang opposite each other. Millet is also represented by his best works.

Impressionist and Post Impressionist galleries on the top floor have always attracted much attention. Many of the pictures hanging there need no introduction. The names of the artists are famous to everyone: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Renoir, Callebotte, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Degas and Cezanne…more than enough to enrapture an art admirer!

If you get tired of exploring the galleries, go to the cosy café upstairs. After a well-earned rest, it is worth going on to subsequent work by more esoteric artists – the symbolists Redon and Moreau are well represented. There are also marvellous darkened rooms devoted to pastel drawings – Manet and Degas made particularly beautiful examples.

More compact and manageable than the Louvre, the d’Orsay benefits greatly from the huge iron-clad atrium that hangs over it, flooding the paintings with natural light. With the whole building brilliantly remodelled by architect Gae Aulenti in the 1980s, it is a joy to visit.

Musee d’Orsay is situated at Rue de Lille, 62. It is open daily except Monday from 9.30am to 6pm (until 9.45pm Thu). The entrance ticket costs €7.50; concessions €5.50; under 18s free; free first Sun of every month.

Paris is famous its art displays. The Musee de Louvre is on everybody’s list. Francois Mitterand’s glass pyramid entrance is no longer a controversy, now being considered an exhibit in its own right. Operating since 1795 “de Louvre” has an unrivaled collection of antiquity. This is where one must go to see original works of Da Vinci, with the Mona Lisa being among the most famous exhibits. The city of lights also hosts galleries dedicated to Picasso and Monet, named Musee Picasso and Musee Marmottan Claude Monet respictively. Monet lovers will have to visit the Musee de l’orangerie as well. The de l’orangerie is once again open and features many of Monet’s waterline series and other art from the early 1900’s. Picasso and Renoir among others.



For modern urban expressionist art in Paris the place to go is to the American Museum of Art.  A local favorite is the Musee D’ Orsay located in a former train station and displaying impressionist and post impressionist paintings. Rome is a “blue chip” city to visit when touring art galleries on the continent. American historians find the Galleria Borghese and Galleria Collona interesting due to the dates of their origins. Both the Borghese and Collona were being built in the 1600’s with the latter completed in 1704 while the colonies were struggling for their own identity. 



The Spada Gallery features paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with some Roman statues from the second and third centuries. A small gallery, the Spada is an impressive stop with the statue of Pompey in the main Pallazo. The foot of the Pompey of course being the most commonly given location for the murder of Julius Caesar. In typical German fashion, displaying art is taken seriously in Berlin. The most famous and most visited museum is the Pergamon Museum. An antiquity collection, A near East collection and display of Islamic art draw over eight hundred thousand visitors per year.  Any period from Egyptian to modern can be found displayed in Berlin.



The Maurmuseum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie is a small and focused display of Berlin’s most famous checkpoint during the cold war. Recordings, texts, films, and objects are on display with some tied to daring escapes and attempts.  Lectures are given by those with firsthand knowledge to share and a tour for your group can be arranged.



London offers the tour group British art displayed in a depth found nowhere else. Trafalgar Square houses the National Gallery with works from the mid thirteenth century to the early twentieth century. North of Trafalgar Square is the National Portrait Gallery with an unrivaled collection of portraits of significant and historical figures.



The Mall galleries opened in 1971 offer more contemporary works and often display work of up and coming artists. The Tate Modern is another London Gallery that augments the traditional displays with new and existing art. With the quality offerings available, your group should have a memorable experience touring Europe.