Musée de l’Orangerie

The Musée de l'Orangerie stands at the western end of the Tuileries Garden, on the Seine side of the Place de la Concorde, in a building constructed in the 1850s to shelter the garden's orange trees in winter. It is best known as the home of Claude Monet's Water Lilies, the series of large panels the painter gave to the French state after the First World War. They were installed in two oval rooms designed with Monet's input and opened to the public in 1927, shortly after his death.

The eight Water Lilies panels wrap around the walls of the two rooms, lit by natural daylight from the ceiling, so that the visitor stands inside the painting of the pond at Giverny. The rooms are meant to be calm and contemplative, and sitting on the central benches for ten or fifteen minutes is the best way to see the changing colours. The lower floor holds the Walter-Guillaume collection, a strong group of works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Soutine, Rousseau and others. Temporary exhibitions, often linked to modern art, are shown in a separate space.

Because it is small, the museum is ideal for visitors who want a short, focused visit, families with young children, or anyone who has already seen the Impressionist galleries at the Musée d'Orsay and wants to complete the story. Admission is free on the first Sunday of each month, but booking a time slot online is compulsory on those days. On other days, booking ahead is still sensible because the oval rooms can feel crowded at peak times.

The museum is open from 9am to 6pm every day except Tuesday. It is also closed on 1 May, on the morning of 14 July and on 25 December. Arriving at opening time or in the last hour gives the best chance of quiet rooms. Allow an hour to an hour and a half for both floors.

Concorde station, on metro lines 1, 8 and 12, is just outside, and the Tuileries Garden leads east towards the Louvre. Across the Seine, reached by the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, is the Musée d'Orsay, while the Jeu de Paume photography centre faces the Orangerie at the other corner of the Tuileries terrace.