Musee d'Orsay: The Train Station Cathedral

Former Gare d'Orsay, Beaux-Arts railway station from 1900, museum since 1986. The main gallery fills the train shed's barrel vault with natural light. The Impressionist collection on the top floor — Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne — hangs in rooms where the station clocks still mark time and the windows frame the Seine.

Covers 1848-1914: the gap between the Louvre and the Pompidou. Not just famous paintings but decorative arts, photography, and sculpture making the period feel lived. The fifth-floor cafe behind the station clock: coffee behind the glass clock face, looking through it onto the Seine. Small room, extraordinary view. Most visitors are downstairs with the Monets.