Musee d Orsay is located in what used to be Gare d'Orsay, a railway station in Paris. The station was built in 1898 and was completed in 1900 in time for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. It lies just opposite the Tuileries Gardens and on the left bank of River Seine. However, after the railway station became obsolete in 1939, it was used as a set of famous movies like Orson Welles' The Trial and as the home of the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company. The station was converted into a museum only in 1977, about 4 years after the station's hotel was completely shut down.

The conversion of the railway station into a museum lasted from 1980 to around 1986. About 20,000 square meters of floor area was added to the old Gare d'Orsay in order to accommodate various art collections for the new museum. Gae Aulenti, an Italian architect, was the one in charge of overseeing the design of the museum’s conversion. The new museum, now known as the Musee d Orsay, was inaugurated by President Francois Mitterrand on December 1, 1986.

Much of the artworks and masterpieces housed in Musee d Orsay are French works created between 1848 and 1915. Majority of the sculptures, paintings, photography, and furniture, are from the impressionist era. Some of the most famous painters of the period whose artworks are displayed in the museum include Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cezanne. Located at the museum's square are six bronze sculptures, which were originally created for the 1878 Universal Exposition. The sculptures are an allegory representing the main land masses on earth, namely: Africa, North America, Europe, Oceania, Asia and South America.

Musee d Orsay remains to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris. In 2008, over 3 million visitors from all over the world visited the museum to view the masterpieces of great European and French painters and sculptors like Auguste Rodin, Camille Caudel, Jules Cavelier, and Honore Daumier. Aside from the exhibition galleries, some of the things that you should look for in the museum compound are the glass walkway (which was part of the original railway station), the Café des Hauteurs, the auditorium, and the bookshop. Even if you are not an art aficionado, this museum should be at the top of your list because of its historical significance and also because of its architectural beauty.

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