Eight museums and foundations to visit away from the crowds during the Olympics – Technologist

While fans of Olympic records flock to the gates of the Paris venues where competitions are being held, crowding fan zones and barriers to cheer on runners and cyclists, the capital’s museums, usually a must-see visit for domestic and foreign tourists during the summer months, are seeing their attendance plummet. You only have to watch the triathlon athletes and cyclists pass the Musée d’Orsay on television, where there were no queues, to appreciate the opportunities available to art-hungry vacationers. Here’s a selection of places to go and discover or rediscover during the Games, in optimal and cool conditions. However, it’s best to reserve a slot on the venue’s website.

The fabulous Torlonia collection at the Musée du Louvre

Traditionally inundated by summer visitors from all over the world, the Musée du Louvre is currently open to the public without any hustle and bustle. In addition to the pleasure of strolling through the 400-meter-long gallery leading from the Sully wing to the Denon wing, it’s the perfect time for antiquities enthusiasts to discover part of the Torlonia princes collection (some 60 of the more than 600 works). The largest private collection of Roman antique sculptures was brought from Rome for the Olympic Games and displayed outside Italy for the first time. These marble pieces, among the most exceptional in the collection, are on show in the newly renovated summer apartments of Anne of Austria, providing a refined setting for the exhibition. S. Ke.

Sports and dogs at the Musée d’Orsay

The Musée d’Orsay is the second most-visited Parisian museum after the Louvre, housed in a former railway station built in the 7^th arrondissement to accommodate the millions of visitors who came to see the 1900 Paris Exhibition and the accompanying Olympic Games, the first held in Paris. It houses art collections dating from 1848 to 1914, including numerous masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin. The current drop in attendance due to the Olympics (whose cauldron can be seen from the Orsay terrace) leaves visitors free to wander from room to room in the majestic central hall. They can also discover the temporary exhibitions being presented this summer: Barking Successes, which brings together drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures from the 19^th century illustrating human’s relationship with this pet, or, in connection with the Olympics, Sport and Ideal, on the advent of sports culture in the 19^th century. S. Ke.

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