Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d’Orsay was originally the Gare d’Orsay, gare meaning “train station” in French. The gare was built in 1900, and housed the world’s first electrified urban rail terminal. I had studied photographs online that depicted the original station from a bygone era, which for years had stood vacant and abandoned before being reopened as a museum.
I imagined the whistles of hundred-year-old trains echoing inside the spacious building. A magnificent clock watched from its high perch. The museum had an atrium feel, with lofty ceilings, lots of glass, and an inner courtyard in the center, home to many statues and sculptures bathed in natural light.