Man, this Degas thing hit me outta nowhere last Tuesday. Was sipping my third coffee when I scrolled past this grainy photo of ballerinas. Instant thought: “Where can I actually see these in Paris without losing my mind?” Grabbed my ancient laptop, screen flickering like a disco light, and dove headfirst into the rabbit hole. Total mess at first. Museums names swimming in my brain like alphabet soup.
The Digging Begins
Opened like ten browser tabs. Accidentally clicked on some weird pastry recipe at one point – focus, dude! Kept seeing the same big names pop up again and again. Figured I’d write ’em down on a literal piece of scrap paper – pen leaking ink all over my thumb. Ended up with a grubby list of the big players everyone talks about for Degas:
- The Grand Central Station of Art: That massive one by the river, right? Kept reading “must-see,” “world-class,” whatever. Sounds impressive, sure, but also sounds like hours in line.
- The Modern Place: You know, the one that looks kinda like pipes exploded? Kept hearing whispers they had some late Degas stuff tucked away. Interesting.
- The Impressionist Paradise: DUH. If I wanna see dancers and horse races, this place got plastered over every search result. Felt almost too obvious.
- The One That Got Away (Sometimes): Another huge museum, fancier vibe. Articles said they might have Degas, depending on… cosmic alignment or storage schedules? Unpredictable.
Reality Check Time
Leaned back in my creaky chair, stared at my sad little list. Grand Central Art Palace? Awesome for breadth, sure. But standing elbow-to-elbow with a thousand tourists just to glimpse one painting? My nightmare. Decided right then: needed places where I could actually breathe and look. Trimmed my list. Said nope to the maybe-museum – who needs that stress?
Fine-tuned the plan. Main goal: dancers and racetracks, good lighting, not too many elbows in my ribs. Started marking locations on my phone map. Saw one was kinda near that fancy old bridge everyone takes pics on. Maybe combine them? Then realized the Modern Pipe Museum was literally steps from my subway stop that one time I got lost near the big train station. Score!
The Execution Phase (Mostly Thinking)
Alright, maps pinned. Felt smug for five seconds. Then hit the wall: tickets. Tried browsing one site on my phone screen, kept getting error messages about time slots. Almost threw the phone. Took a breath, swallowed my cheap pride, and accepted I needed to actually pay admission fees. Bookmarked each museum’s official ticket page. Set a reminder to buy before some tour group snags them all.
Felt thirsty just planning. Water bottle in the bag, non-negotiable. Camera charged? Double-checked. Snacks? Definitely packing some. Those museum cafes bleed your wallet dry. Planned to walk mostly, trains are great until the line shuts down unexpectedly. Packed decent shoes – learned that lesson the hard way last trip. Blisters suck.
Wrapping My Brain Around It
Took one last look at my crumpled museum list and scribbled itinerary. Settled on the Impressionist place for the main Degas fix – they’ve got the goods, crowded or not. Hitting the Modern one on the same day since they’re practically neighbors, see if those late sculptures hit different. Saving the Giant Art Palace for another time, maybe when I’ve grown extra patience.
The hunt itself was the adventure. Went from “Degas who?” to having a legit plan sketched on greasy napkin notes. Turns out finding the good stuff in Paris means dodging the obvious traps and accepting you might miss a few. Just gotta wear decent shoes and buy tickets before you go. Simple, right? Mostly.
