Love at the Musée Rodin

What’s more romantic than an evening spent in the company of the most iconic kiss in the world?

Forget your impossible-to-get reservations for overpriced 18-course meals you’ll only partly like. For Valentine’s Day, Frenchman and I took romance to the next level. We went to the Musée Rodin.

I was lucky enough to get my name on a list for the exclusive #SoiréeLove event at the Rodin Museum, so we gratefully gave up trying to find affordable romantic plans (we did just buy a home, after all) and took the even better idea that fell in our laps.

The Musée Rodin

The Rodin museum in Paris is actually one of my favorite museums, but it’s often overlooked in favor of the grander Louvre and Musée d’Orsay on whirlwind trips through town. What I love about this museum, though, is that not only do you get to see Rodin’s incredible work, but the real highlight of the estate is the garden.

The museum is actually a beautiful mansion, in which Rodin actually lived and worked, set amid pretty gardens dotted with the artist’s sculptures in all their huge, impressive glory. If you’re lucky with the weather, you can just sit in the garden a while and contemplate your surroundings. You can even buy a ticket just for the gardens, if you’d like to sit and read or sketch and skip the museum. Inside, you meander through the rooms to see even more sculptures (complete, partially finished, early versions), as well as Rodin’s paintings and paintings by other artists including my beloved Van Gogh and Monet.

A Night at the Museum

Though the museum normally closes at 5 or 6pm, on this special occasion they were reopening their doors for a romantic Valentine’s “Soirée Love” highlighting the most love-inspired and passionate pieces in the museum’s collection. There were rose petals scattered near significant works, jazz musicians echoing through the halls, and poetry readings in the presence of dramatic sculptures of love and passion.

In short, it was lovely.

Each sculpture with special relevance to the theme, whether about or inspired by love (or a lover) had a special write-up giving a short history of the piece, including bits of Rodin’s personal relationships, quotes from love letters, etc.

Valentine’s Romance in Paris

It was very cool to be able to experience such a special event at the Rodin Museum. I couldn’t have planned a more unique treat for Valentine’s Day, or really any day.

For a truly romantic finish to our evening, Frenchman was clearly so inspired by our Soirée Love surrounded by romance and passion and art, that he came to one magnificent conclusion:

Pizza.

Short of proposing, it was the most important question he has ever asked me. And of course, I said yes!

Honestly, it was maybe the best V-Day dinner I’ve ever had. I’m not ashamed to admit it.

We ate our pizzas with a good glass of wine, laughed and talked, and then walked back to catch the train home to Saint Germain en Laye (where we had a delicious dessert waiting for us that Frenchman picked up in advance).

All in all, a banner day for love in France.