Musée d'Orsay - Orsay Museum
Victor Laloux who designed the Tours town hall was commissioned in 1898 to transform the Gare d'Orsay into a central train station, The station and its hotel, constructed in two years, were officially opened for the Universal Exhibition on 14 July 1900.On the exterior, Laloux masked the metallic structures by a stone facade in an eclectic style.The interior was itself an ode to modernism (sloping levels, new lift systems and baggage conveyor belts).
From 1900 to 1939 Gare d'Orsay was the main terminus of the national south-western line. From 1939 the station and its facilities became obsolete, and it was decided upon the initiative of president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing) it was decided in 1977 to transform the former gare d'Orsay into a 19th century museum. In 1978, the building was listed as a historic monument and on 1 December 1986 the new president, François Mitterrand, inaugurated this new and unmissable Paris museum.
Today the Musée d'Orsay houses paintings and sculptures which date from 1848, and most particularly a fabulous collection of impressionist works, displayed in a light and airy setting.