Orsay Museum Holiday Closings - Read Carefully

I looked at the Orsay website -- my understanding is that those two dates mentioned are only listed because they,re both holidays, so they are notifying up top that the museum is closed on Monday, July 14, which is Bastille Day; but will be open on Friday, August 15th, which is Assumption.

If the museum were going to be closed for a whole month, the French would read something like *la musée sera fermée du 14 juillet jusqu'au 15 août. *.

So don't worry, you should be able to go to the Orsay as normal, just not on Bastille day!

Many thanks for that clarification!!

interesting. When we have been in Paris on Fete Nationale (which is what the French call what the Americans call 'Bastille Day') the Louvre has been open and free. But Monday is generally the 'closed day' for the Orsay, so maybe that is just reiterating that?

I think that they are just reiterating that they will be closed on July 14th. The Louvre is free on Fete National so people might assume that other museums that are normally closed on Mondays will be open on this July 14th because it is a special day.

Most of the French people I know simply refer to the holiday as le quatorze if one wants to get technical about it.

The government says the one, the people the other, n'est-ce pas?

But the French don't call it Bastille Day

We call ours, the 4th of July or Independence Day --

They call theirs Fete Nationale or Le Quatorze.

they don't call it Bastille Day and are sometimes annoyed when foreigners do.

Exactly, Bets!

I never said the French called it Bastille Day. I'm writing on a website for mainly American (or in any case, mostly North American, and really in any case NOT French tourists), so I made the reference that would be most easily understood by someone looking here for information. I'm pretty sure I didn't annoy or offend any French people by referring to * Bastille Day* on the Rick Steves helpline. Sheesh.

I have been in Paris on 'Bastille Day' a couple of times and Americans still call it that then and use that term when asking French people about it. I have seen them corrected on the topic. I understand that some people prefer to never ever ever be corrected.

Actually (and this will probably set off fireworks) it's not Fete Nationale, but La Fête Nationale / la fête nationale, always with the article. But you all knew this....

As to being corrected by the French on their territory, it is simply the only mildly irritating thing that one is likely to experience in Paris amonst the positive aspects of a visit to that Beautiful city. One will be criticized from time to time about pronouncing French words and phrases (remember "My Fair Lady" in which Prof Higgins says something like 'The French don't care what you do, actually, as long as you pronounce it properly"), asking for coffee before the end of the meal, asking for any component of the meal out of order, sitting at one's table before being given permission to do so, etc.

The French, bless 'em all, the long and the short and the tall, are a good deal less gentle and forebearing than are the English with touring strangers, particularly, I suspect, with Americans (in London, we're children of one mother, separated by a common language, don' you know?).

In any event, practice and preach your "bon jours". "bon soirs", "s'il vous plais", "mercis", etc, and you can probably avoid most of the criticism by minimizing any unneccessary conversation. I'm not sure that attempting to speak the language is as welcome in France as it often is in other non-English-speaking countries.

All this wisdom is based on just one week in Paris about 14 years ago, but, not having completely learned our earlier lessons, we'll be returning for another week later this year, and look forward to fine foods, fine art and fine places yet again.

Bon voyage!
P.S. I don't plan ever to type accents and diacritical marks in this forum software. You have to imagine them.