So Overrated It’s Underrated

Many people I spoke to about seeing the Lourve pretty much said that it wasn’t terribly exciting. I guess it’s sort of like Citizen Kane; once a reputation reaches a certain point a lot of people are inevitably going to be disappointed. But granting that if I could only see one Paris museum in a visit I would probably stick with the D’Orsay, it’s nonetheless pretty spectacular. The thing is that a large percentages of the admittedly large crowds (even early on a Friday morning) at any given time are falling into the arms of Venus De Milo, and that atrocious book and Ron Howard movie seems to have also increased the lines around the Mona Lisa, leaving one free to browse the exceptional second-floor collection in relative peace (you might run into a big tour group, but there’s just so much worth seeing that you can just skip a room and hit it on the way back.)

And maybe I’m just an easily pleased Francophile, but with the partial exception of the Rodin (which is just because neither sculptures nor gardens are really by thing) I can’t say I was disappointed by anything. The D’Orsay is just incredible, of course, but the Picasso, the Cluny (medieval museum) and the Cinematheque (terrific Almodovar exhibit, screening of Duck Soup)…all pretty great despite difficult to meet expectations. Plus, wandering around Le Marais today I stumbled across a free Paris Au Cinema exhibit, which involved a whole bunch of film clips featuring Paris and organized thematically. If that doesn’t inspire me to get a Netflix queue going, I don’t know what will.