Prior to coming to Paris, I knew I wanted to see the museum with the circular walls where Monet’s Water Lilies are displayed. I didn’t know the name of the museum, and when I learned that it was called the Musée de l’Orangerie, I was a bit puzzled. My French was not great, but a museum of oranges? How did that end up housing some of Monet’s most beautiful works?
Well, the story goes back to 1852, when the building was constructed to provide winter storage for the orange trees that line the Tuileries Gardens. That explains why the building resembles a greenhouse, although with a rather ornate entrance.
But how did Monet enter the picture?
Fast-forward to 1921, when the French government designated the building as a site to house the work of France’s great living artists. At the time, Monet was painting his Water Lilies series, which he had offered to the French state. Monet worked with architect Camille Lefèvre to design the space where the paintings would be exhibited.
In the end, Monet created a total of eight panels, each two meters high and together measuring 91 meters in length. They were designed to be displayed across two oval rooms, forming the shape of an infinity symbol. The Musée Claude Monet was inaugurated on May 17, 1927, a few months after the artist’s death. It would later take on the name Musée de l’Orangerie.
It may seem a little nutty to wait in line to see just two rooms in a museum, and even nuttier to race to see it before racing to the airport to head home, but that is precisely what we did.
We had planned to visit the Musée de l’Orangerie on our last full day in Paris. The plan was to visit the Orangerie first and then head across the river to the Musée d’Orsay. We arrived at the doorstep of the museum only to find a sign saying that it was unexpectedly closed, with no reopening date in sight. An HVAC issue had unexpectedly disrupted my carefully-planned itinerary.
My daughter was rather diligent in scouring the museum’s Facebook page and discovered that it posted an update every day around 5 p.m. So, the plan now was to wait until the evening and see if there was any chance we could get there before our car left for the airport at 10 a.m. the following morning.
Her strategy was spot-on. The museum would be open.
So now we had a new plan.
The museum opened at 9 a.m. If we were there precisely when it opened, and if we could hop to the head of the line with our Carte Blanche card, we could see the museum, perhaps take a quick look at the exhibition downstairs, and be back at our hotel by 10.
Our plan worked, and we were able to experience what Monet had envisioned before heading home.
The beauty of the design is that the walls, floor, and ceiling are all white, while natural light fills the rooms from above. The paintings surround you. And although I knew there was a long line of people waiting outside, the museum itself was not overcrowded. You could still feel the beauty and serenity of the scene—that is, once the self-promoting influencer taking selfies and twirling about finally left the room.
I know we were really cramming this into our itinerary at the last minute, but it was worth the effort. If I were doing my itinerary over again, I would put the Musée de l’Orangerie at the top of my list.
