I finally made it to the Musée de l’Orangerie, to see Monet’s Water Lilies. Truth be told, this was at the beginning of the summer, but with all the hustle and bustle that followed, this outing was relegated to the back of my memory. I had tried to visit the Orangerie in the summer of 2006, when it first opened, but I made the mistake of just showing up on a Saturday about three weeks after it re-opened and was told I needed either reservations from FNAC or to wait in a god-awful line. Then, at the beginning of this past summer, on one of the many weekends when my friend R had popped into town for a couple of days, we showed up on a free Sunday, the first Sunday of the month, and as you can probably guess, we were greeted with another god-awful line. However, I was by this time ashamed that a year had gone by and I still hadn’t seen the renovated Orangerie, so we dutifully got in the line and waited our turn.

The Orangerie, as its name implies, started out as an old covered orange grove in the Tuileries gardens in the nineteenth century. In 1927 Monet was invited to install his Water Lilies there, which he had been working on since 1914 at Giverny. In 2000, the museum closed for what ended up being a six-year renovation, four years longer than expected, due to the discovery of ancient fortress walls beneath the building (which are now on display in the lower level of the museum, along with works from other masters of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries).

The resulting building, which reopened in the summer of 2006, has natural light shining through the ceiling into the upper level of the museum, in the two oval rooms housing the Water Lilies. In a way, this light almost causes the viewing of the paintings to change and adapt according to outside conditions and time of day, much as would be the case in real life. Strolling slowly along the curved walls, you almost feel like you are strolling through the gardens at Giverny. The light shimmering off the water, the colors growing darker as you head under the shade of a willow tree, the flowers changing color every few steps. It’s peaceful, almost meditative, so much so that you almost can shut out the noise of the bustling Sunday visitors and the museum guards yelling “No flash! No flash!” every ten seconds at some sneaky tourist who dared snap a flash shot. (Pictures are allowed, although only without flash, which is why my pictures turned out a bit fuzzy).

While I like impressionist paintings as much as the next person, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s my favorite era of painting. What I mean is, I’ve never been one of those people who buys impressionist mugs and calendars. However, the Water Lilies in their renovated home are truly a sight to be seen…

Musée de l’Orangerie, located in the Jardin des Tuileries

Metro: Concorde

Open everyday except Tuesdays and some holidays, from 12:30pm-7pm, 9pm on Fridays

http://www.musee-orangerie.fr

Take a virtual tour of the museum here