L'Orangerie & Tuileries

Monday was museum day.  

(P.S.  In SSG's universe, she would make EVERY DAY museum day.)

This is the Musee de l'Orangerie.  L'Orangerie used to be the royal greenhouse for kings that lived in what is now the Louvre.  More specifically, they'd keep the palace's citrus trees here during the winter.  If I die, I'd like to come back as a royal citrus tree in Paris, okay?  Thanks.

This "greenhouse" now holds some different garden items.  

When SSG was in college, she went through a MONET phase.  She had a "Water Lilies" comforter and Monet prints EVERYWHERE.  The year before she had gone through a sunflower phase, but we won't talk about that because Spleen (her dorm roommate) has spent a lot of years trying to forget that era.  Spleen likes to call that period  "Sunflower Barfed Over Dorm Room."

Where was I again?  

Oh yeah.  MONET.  

L'Orangerie houses the largest collection of Claude Monet's Water Lilies series.

And they were LOVELY.  A lot of people had told SSG how BIG they were.  That SSG would NOT be prepared for how HUGE the paintings were.  SSG scoffed.  She knew exactly how big the paintings were, she used to have a college dorm room that Monet had barfed all over. 

Let me tell you something.  SSG was NOT prepared for how BIG the canvases were.

The slightly curved walls of L'Orangerie, it's crisp white floors, arched doorways and sun pouring in through skylights made SSG very, very happy.

That is until she couldn't get her camera to focus.  She took this shot OVER and OVER again before realizing ... 

OH YEAH.  It's a MONET.

It was time for a drink.

This was a charming little cafe in the gardens that are adjacent to the L'Orangerie.  And this was the charming little cafe where the waiter was NOT so charming.  And where a soda cost EIGHT EURO, but a glass of wine only cost TWO.  

On second thought, maybe this was SSG's favorite place.  Like ever.

The Jardin des Tuileries was beautiful.  We strolled on vast gravel pathways, walking past fountains ...

And pretty benches ... 

Side note:  SSG is a firm believer in having LOTS of pretty places to sit and rest her feet and is glad Paris agrees.

And artists selling their paintings ... 

And while all of that was amazing, it was nothing compared to this place ...

Up next ... THE LOUVRE. 

Snapshot of Coco:

Here Comes the Sun (Nina Simone)

Into the Mystic (Van Morrison)

Strawberry Fields (Ben Harper)

Anticipation (Carly Simon)

These Are Days (10,000 Maniacs)