Orangerie

Last weekend I paid a visit to the Orangerie, it is a small glasshouse near the Louvre which is now home to some massive Monet paintings of the waterlillies. There are two rooms which were purpose built, under Monet's instructions, to house these paintings and they really are impressive, covering all four walls in both rooms.

Here are two of the 8 walls with the waterlilly paintings, I certainly wasn't expecting anything so impressive when I went in and I would recommend a visit if you have the time, if only for the two Monet rooms. It has sure made me want to visit Giverny, which was Monet's house with the pond which inspired all these paintings. I might leave that to Spring though when all the flowers should be out.









As well as the two rooms of Monet's there are also a whole stack of other paintings by the impressionists, sure it is no Musee d'Orsay, but it is still impressive none the less.














In following on my series of really ugly children paintings here is another one I saw at the Orangerie, I think the artist was probably going for himself as an adult, painted as a child, at least that is the only excuse I can give for such an ugly kid.

After the Orangerie I went off to Place Vendome, which is just a massive square, the only reason I am including it here is because of the column in the middle. The outside is a 160m long bronze spiral made from 1250 cannons captured by Napoleon from Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. The statue at the top of the column is Napoleon as a Roman emperor. That guy really had short man's syndrome, what with all the monuments to himself he had built.
























The last picture I want to show is a sculpture at the southern end of the Palais Royal gardens. This sculpture was begun in 1986 but then interrupted by angry Parisians and wasn't completed until 1995 after the Ministry for Culture intervened. You don't want to go messing with angry Parisians, that's for sure! I kind of liked it though, without the sculpture it's just a concrete courtyard afterall.