There were actually two Impressionist art museums I wanted to visit while in Paris, L'Orangerie being one and the Musee Carnavalet being the other. Sadly, the Carnavalet was closed during my time in Paris, preparing for a new exhibit, but L'Orangerie, which houses Monet's murals of water lilies, was open and well worth the visit.
L'Orangerie is located in the Tuileries garden so I took the Metro to the nearby Concorde stop and wandered around Place de la Concorde and the gardens before going into the museum. More blue skies today! For a couple of months during the summer and then a few more in the winter, a huge ferris wheel, La Grande Roue, is erected in Place de la Concorde. Apparently it was dismantled just a few days after I was there.
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| La Grande Roue |
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| Fountain at Place de la Concorde (no water running) |
For some reason, I was really fascinated by the green chairs in the Tuileries. In warm weather, I'm sure these are hard ticket to come by but many were empty on this cold but sunny day.
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| Tuileries |
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| Green Chairs with Shadows - Tuileries |
L'Orangerie is a small art museum but packs a punch, especially with Monet's water lilies. The two oval rooms showcasing the large murals are breathtaking. It's pretty amazing that Monet painted these when he was suffering from cataracts and nearly blind. No photos are allowed of Monet's murals but you can photograph any of the paintings downstairs. Below are a few of my favorites:
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| Musee L'Orangerie (Marie Laurencin) |
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| Musee L'Orangerie (Picasso) |
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| Musee L'Orangerie (Monet) |
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| Musee L'Orangerie (Renoir) |
After touring the museum, I had a leisurely lunch and a couple of glasses of wine. After all, I did say I wanted to live the life of a Parisian! I then took the Metro out to the Jardin des Plantes, the main botanical garden in Paris. It was a peaceful escape from the "city" but it was what you would expect from a garden in the winter . . . not a lot blooming except in the greenhouse.
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| Sprawling grounds at Jardin des Plantes |
Given that the weather didn't look so great for my last day in Paris, I decided to spend the late afternoon at Tour Montparnasse. This 59 story building is considered by many to be an eyesore in Paris but, ironically, affords some of the best views of Paris. In fact, many consider the view from atop the Montparnasse tower better than the view from the Eiffel Tower. I'm not so sure about that (for me, the Eiffel Tower is just too romantic) but one thing's for sure, unlike the Eiffel Tower, there was absolutely no wait to get to the top of the tower and there were very few tourists. Before going up the tower, I took a quick tour of the nearby Montparnasse Cemetery to see the graves of Jean Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvoir and Susan Sontag:
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| Montparnasse Cemetery |
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| Montparnasse Cemetery |
And a couple of photos of Paris from Tour Montparnasse:
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| Paris from above - Tour Montparnasse |
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| Paris from above - Tour Montparnasse |
I spent quite a bit of time writing this evening, reflecting on my trip so far and feeling a bit sad that I only had one day left in Paris. Time was simply going by too fast!
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