Musée d'Orsay, Art museum in 7th arrondissement, France
The Musée d'Orsay occupies the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts station built by Victor Laloux from 1898 to 1900. Under the barrel-vaulted glass roof, the old train platforms form a central nave lined with stone structures, with galleries on three levels around it; Gae Aulenti designed the interior arrangement from 1981.
Victor Laloux designed the Gare d'Orsay for the Paris World's Fair in 1900, serving trains until 1939 before the structure served various purposes for decades. Italian architect Gae Aulenti redesigned the interiors for the museum opening in 1986 under President François Mitterrand.
The museum's name comes from the quai d'Orsay, named after Charles Boucher d'Orsay, the prévôt des marchands who had the quay built. Since 2010 the Musée de l'Orangerie in the Tuileries is attached to it, and in March 2021 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's name was added to the institution's title. An auditorium hosts concerts, cinema, shadow theatre and lectures.
Visitors may enter Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM, with Thursday hours extending until 9:45 PM. The first Sunday of each month grants free admission. RER line C stops at Musée d'Orsay station, while several bus routes and Metro line 12 reach the grounds.
The preserved station clock face in the main hall measures over 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter and provides views through its transparent hands toward Montmartre and the opposite riverbank, while visitors can walk behind the mechanism itself.
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