The Musée de l'Orangerie is located in the southwest corner of the Jardin des Tuileries, the largest public park in Paris. The garden is situated between the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre, and dates back to the 16th Century, when it was first set aside by Catherine de Medicis, the widow of Henry II, as the garden to accompany the new Tuileries Palace. Since that time it has undergone periods of expansion, remodeling and neglect. The palace to which it was attached was burned down in 1871, but the garden remains as a public park.

The Orangerie was a relatively recent addition, having been built in 1852, when there was still a Palais des Tuileries, by Louis Napoleon as an orangery. An orangery is a sort of greenhouse used to store sensitive plants (such as citrus trees) during cold winter months. In the early 20th Century the artist Claude Monet was on a binge during which he was painting large numbers of paintings of the water lilies in his garden at Giverny (he eventually painted 250 of them, a series known as the Nymphéas), and he wanted to donate some large murals of them to the French people. Work began on the existing Orangerie building as a place to exhibit them, and the murals went on display in 1927, shortly after Monet's death in December of 1926. There are currently eight murals, on display in two oval rooms which are lit by filtered sunlight.



In 1965 the museum's collection was significantly expanded through the acquisition of a collection built by the collectors Paul Guillaume and Jean Walter, the collection being donated by their widow (to whom they were married at different times), named Domenica (suspected by some to be involved in the suspicious deaths of both husbands), after her own death. This collection consists of several impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, as well as many 20th-Century paintings which probably wouldn't fit into either category (some look like products of bad dreams but are fascinating). The collection (and more) are found downstairs in the museum. Also downstairs is a reconstruction of the apartment of Paul Guillaume, with the walls covered by amazing paintings.










After visiting the Orangerie (included in the Museum Pass, by the way), we walked across the garden, looking for a place to get lunch. There were a couple of cafés in the park, but they were expensive, so we kept going. We did see several sculptures on display in the park, as well as large ponds used by children (like the pond at the Luxembourg gardens) to launch toy sailboats.

In the northeast corner of the park we found a small carnival, with a few rides (including a large ferris wheel) and stalls selling not-very-nutritious snacks.

We continued out of the park and crossed the Rue de Rivoli (laid out and named by Napoleon after one of his victories) to the north. On the other side of the street were several arcaded business establishments, among which we eventually found a reasonably-priced cafeteria. After refueling we found a Metro station and hopped a train to our next stop, the Pompidou Center.