Orsay - closed on Mondays

The Musée d'Orsay is normally closed on Mondays but this morning we were able to take part in a concert and visit of the Degas/Manet exhibition with singer Albin de la Simone that was open to members of the museum. After it was over, we were encouraged to take our time seeing the exhibition ourselves, which was really wonderful! It was unclear after that if we were able to visit other parts of the museum or not but we pushed on a little and saw the expo "Pastels: de Millet à Redon" with basically no one there but us and some security guards. After that, we went up to the 5th floor to see the permanent collection in rooms that are normally packed, which we again had to ourselves (see extras). Even as we left, it was a little unclear whether we were really meant to have the run of the museum after the concert and I think the sense of maybe transgressing made it even more fun. It was an incredible experience at Orsay and one that I doubt I'll ever have again.

Our evening plans were also really nice. Our colleague C joined us from Nantes for apéro and to see the play "Et pendant ce temps, Simone Veille" at the Théâtre de la Comédie Bastille. C and I share the same birthday - coming up in a few days - so F treated us to a delicious fraisier cake here afterwards and we had some limoncello - just a lovely day!