Travel: Cee of Coco & Vera, Top 5 Paris Museums

Hello, today I'm excited to be welcoming Cee back to the blog and happy to know you're all enjoying her travel posts. We still have a few more up our sleeve and I can't wait to share the rest of them with you. Then... I'll be moving on to a really fun reader feature which I'll run each month - so stay tuned! As for today's post? It has got to be one of my absolute favourites... growing up in Europe meant touring art galleries constantly with my mom and to this day I'm a huge lover of art. Can I name drop? My parents recently gifted me with two original Renoir etchings and they are the pride and joy of my home. I still pinch myself constantly! Okay, onto the post...


Musee Carnavalet: housed in two hotel particulars (read: big old houses) joined together, the museum of Paris history is a veritable treasure trove of unusual and quirky pieces, from an ancient boat used by very early residents of the region to navigate the Seine to revolutionary banners with spelling errors and bedroom furnishings of famous authors. In a city full of pristine museums housing famous works of art, Carnavalet is down to earth and easygoing.


Musee d'Orsay: after a brief stint as a train station, the Musee d'Orsay was shut down and, by the 1970s, set to be demolished. Saved from destruction by a visionary minister of cultural affairs, it reopened in 1986 as the home modern French art. The majority of the pieces date from the impressionist and post-impressionist period, so if you've dreamed of Degas' ballerinas or of Van Gogh visionary work with colour, this is the museum to visit. The architecture of the space is equally stunning, a combination of French Victorian and modern simplicity that blends with surprising ease. Don't miss sneaking a peak across the river through the station's clock, which also serves as a window onto the city.


Musee du Louvre: there are overrated tourist attractions. There are places that pop up in every guidebook but make you wonder why when you visit yourself. And then there is the Louvre. The former French royal palace is home to what is arguably the most impressive and extensive collection of art in the world. There are must-see pieces like the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa - you won't even need a map to find them, just follow the crowd! - but there are also many quiet, unexplored corners full of hidden treasures just waiting to be discovered.


Musee Rodin: paul-Auguste Rodin so loved his home and garden in Paris' 7th arrondissement that he didn't want to change a thing about it... Even after his death. Rodin bequeathed his home and all of the sculptures in it to the city of Paris in his will, on the condition it would be used as a permanent museum dedicated to his work. Paris has done exactly that, and although I wasn't there when Rodin lived in the hotel Biron, I can certainly say that it is spectacular today. The long, ambling rose garden is a particularly lovely place to spend a summer evening.


Musee de l'Orangerie: this small museum has a big claim to fame - it is home to one of the largest collections of Claude Monet's Les Nympheas - of water lilies - paintings in the world. On solitary display in bright white oval-shaped rooms, the impressionist masterpieces are even more breathtaking because their stark environment allows them to be the centre of focus.

Thanks so much for reading guys and thank you, Cee! Plus Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends. I can't wait to stuff myself all weekend long. Haha, boho top & stretchy leggings here I come! ;)