place de la concorde, tuileries, musée de l'orangerie

the musée de l'orangerie is a perfect stop in paris. it is just next to place de la concorde at the end of the tuilerie gardens. the gardens stretch from the louvre to place de la concorde and from here you can see palaces, the obelisk of place de la concorde, the eiffel tower, the louvre and the arc de triumph.

at end of the gardens there are two identical museums, jeu de paume and l'orangerie. i visited the former two years ago, so we decided to go to l'orangerie. there is a collection from paul guillaume including matisse, picasso, renoir, and others. stunning pieces by these renowned artists would normally captivate me, but oddly enough they were white noise - wallpaper. 

that's because upstairs the gallery is dedicated to the water lilies, les nymphéas, by claude monet. there are eight wall-sized sections of nymphéas split between two rooms constructed to house them. 

the gallery is relatively silent in these rooms, as people like me stop and get a sense of where they are and what they are looking at.