One word - WOW

Two Words - High Expectations.

Three words - Met and Exceeded.

Four words - We were blown away.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I loved this small museum.  Europe is so rampant with art, that after visiting museums upon museums things start to blend together.  The downside of cramming a lot into a few days.  For an art novice like moi, art starts to be more of the same.  It’s a “beautiful!”, “gorgeous!” “fabulous!”,  …. NEXT!

That was not the case with the Musee de l’Orangerie.  The last time I was in Paris, this was closed for renovations and I never got to visit.  Truth be told it probably wasn’t even on my radar back then.  But after reading about it in a guide book, I knew I had to stop here.  I wasn’t disappointed.  This little gem is well worth a visit and would immediately become one of the highlights of the trip.

This museum was constructed around two oval rooms that house its crowing glory - Monet’s Waterlilies. From my understanding, Monet spent the last 30 years of his life working on these 8 panels while fighting cataracts.  Also known as Nympheas, this series consists of 8 gigantic murals of his garden at Giverney and depict the passage of the day.  Each painting is 6 and a half feet tall and when measured end to end, the murals are 298 feet long. This museum is also unique in that it was built to Monet’s specifications to especially house this art.

And because mere pictures might not be able to convey the awesomeness that is this museum — here’s a link to a virtual tour on the museum’s website (worth looking) :

http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/homes/home_id24799_u1l2.htm

This post is tagged france travel photography, orangerie, paris, travel