Paris Blog #1: Musée Rodin - Rodin/Mapplethorpe!

Bonjour! I am writing from the beautiful 9e arrondissment in Paris. It's currently 2:41 AM here, but I basically slept for 8 hours so I'm wide away (yay jetlag!) I arrived safely in Paris yesterday, thanks to everyone who sent me well wishes! I was pretty tired when I got in because it'd be about 3AM in Montreal even though it was almost 10AM in Paris. But I didn't want to waste any time seeing this beautiful city!

I've decided that I will spending most of my time visiting museums and historical sites - because what else would an Art Historian want to visit? So each day you'll get to see what I've been up to and where I've gone. I'm excited! And don't worry! I've left some shopping time slated for the end of the trip so that I can come home with lots of goodies for a special Paris shopping blog!

Rodin/Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Musée Rodin.

Yesterday's trip was to the Musée Rodin. I was interested to see Rodin's sculptures in person because I've only ever seen photo slides as part of Powerpoint presentations and it's really not the same. I am not generally wowed by sculpture (I'm much more into graphic arts and photography), but Rodin is one of the few exceptions for me, and I was so excited that Rodin was being paired with Robert Mapplethorpe. My friend was doing research in Paris a few weeks ago for her thesis and she mentioned that Mapplethorpe was one of the highlights of her week. Girl was on point because it was an amazing exhibition. I have to say, I think that it did more for Mapplethorpe than it did Rodin, but they were an interesting combination to be put together. I commend the museum and the Mapplethorpe foundation in New York!

I thought that the glass presentoires were an incredibly smart way of displaying the work. Rather than traditional solid walls, this allowed you to see into all parts of the exhibition pretty much at the same time, so that you could kind of formulate your own connections and walk through in any way that you wanted. I'm partial to that kind of exhibition, as it gives me the freedom to do what I want!

The highlight of the Musée Rodin for me, however, wasn't the actual sculptures themselves, it was the amazing gardens and all of the architecture. Hello, gorgeous! Seriously, walking through the garden and getting to look at all the sculptural work was amazing. 

A bonus: I got to try macaroons for the first time yesterday! I know, how does one get through 24 years of life without trying macaroons? I don't know either, but they were delicious! The museum café had such cute presentation for them that I couldn't help myself! I'm glad that I was enticed.

Overall, a great first day. Today's location is Versailles! I'm stoked! I'm bringing a book so that I can spend most of my time reading in the gardens, though I'm sad that I'll probably have to leave a bit early. I didn't realize that my travel adapter was only two-pronged, so I can't charge my laptop, grrr. Here's to hoping that the pharmacy near Versailles has the travel adapter that I need, otherwise I'll have to leave almost two hours early just to make it back into the city! Boo!