Musée Jacquemart-André

Today ... did not start off well.  I somehow managed to massively mess up my planned activities.  I'd rsvp'd to a museum's film, but somehow managed to misremember the name of the museum, so I went to an entirely different museum.  Not only that, but I managed to mess up the directions (I clicked on my map, and didn't read carefully enough).  So my "I'll leave some extra time, just in case" turned into "I will get there just as it starts..."  And then there was a long line [which turned out to be irrelevant, since I was at the wrong place]. I ran all around the building's multiple floors before I figured that out (asking where the film is doesn't help, if your wrong museum also has a film, as it turns out).*  

So I was very hot and grumpy.  I hate being flaky, so I also felt bad that I'd said I'd be at the other place and didn't go. Also, I actually was looking forward to this film.  Here is a picture that basically sums up my feelings about the whole thing.

I had, in fact, intended to go to this museum at some point: it is the Musée Jacquemart-André, which is set in the home of two ardent art collectors. I just wasn't intending that day to be today.  It's too bad I was so grumpy because I don't think I appreciated it as much as I ought to have.

Still, it was very interesting. This is one of their main rooms and the wall on the left could be lowered into the basement so that they could connect several rooms together to make entertaining easier -- up to a thousand people, apparently. You can see a faint line about a quarter of the way down that goes across the paneling,

Here is a view from their music gallery; you can see the "winter garden" just beyond.

And here is part of their absolutely insane collection of Italian art (they had rooms and rooms of it. They also bought things like frescos & entire ceilings and had them installed). 

The museum also had an exhibition on the Dutch artist Vilhelm Hammershøi, who was active in the late 19th/early 20th century.  I'd never heard of him, but I think his work is excellent. 

After that I went to the Galleries Lafayette, where I slouched about in their grocery section and ended up buying water and some fancy cheese. I, of course, neglected to take any photos of that.  

Stopped at very the same good bakery as last time (this is not my photo, I stole it from Google reviews).  I got their baguette made with charcoal (you can tell -- it's black).  Interesting, but probably won't do that again.  The black sesame eclair, however...

* I also realized when I woke up that I'd missed an entire floor of the Pompidou yesterday, which is irksome.  It's just been sort of a day.