musée de l'orangerie

a surprise day off had my au pair boys staying at their grandparent's place & me wandering around paris with meg & hat. we metro'd to the 1st arrondissement of paris, to the jardin des tuileries. at the entrance  (just next to place de la concorde), there are two seemingly identical buildings. one is jeu de paume, a photography gallery/museum. the other is the musée de l'orangerie. as its name suggests, it has a history with oranges - the building was built as a greenhouse to protect the orange trees of the tuileries gardens from the harsh winter frosts & snow, in the mid-19th century.

now the building is home to claude monet's famous waterlillies. there are eight of them that form his collection "les nymphéas"... and they're huge - 2m high and about 100m total length if you were to join them all up. waaaah, they were very impressive when viewed both up close & from a distance. as well as the waterlillies, there's also a big collection of impressionist and post-impressionist pieces by renoir, matisse, cézanne & picasso.

afterwards we walked through place de la concorde, stopping to sit at the twin fountains. these have become (more) famous since they featured in the film "the devil wears prada"...you may recall the scene when andy throws her phone into a fountain, when in paris? ta da, it was this one.

we walked back through the jardin des tuileries, right through to the musée du louvre. relaxed in the sunshine - sitting by the pyramid, reflected in the still water of the fountains. i'd always just accepted that with the louvre came the pyramid - but of course, this wasn't always the case. the louvre used to be a magnificent palace, home to many french royals until louis XIV moved to versailles. 

now, it should be known that each french president undertakes a "grand projet" (big project) where they can add or create something in paris. for example - georges pompidou decided to create a modern art museum, namely the centre pompidou. in the 80s, francois mitterrand (then president) decided to put a glass pyramid in cour napoléon (napolean's courtyard). the public originally weren't fond of the idea (the french aren't open to new ideas; they hated the eiffel tower & the pompidou centre...), saying that it would ruin the classical architecture of the louvre...but i think it's quite adored these days...

post-louvre, we strolled along the banks of the seine, crossed over pont des arts - the "love lock" bridge - then over to notre dame. lit candles, admired the architecture, marvelled at the stained-glass windows & eavesdropped on the mass taking place. love this place, it never gets old (excuse the pun).

moved on over to île saint-louis, picking up a crêpe on the way. sat eating, chatting, laughing & watching the sun set across the water. on our way back we crossed paths with a jazz busking group, where we couldn't resist a little dance by the river...

met up with frida at the eiffel tower for a midnight picnic. shared stories & watched the sparkling tower, accompanied with baguettes, cider & a warm summer night.

à la prochaine,

S.

beautiful

sacre coeur

have a print of this painting in my bathroom back home. have now seen the original!

found the artwork that was on my entry ticket

place de la concorde

make a wish

meg throwing her phone into the fountain

le louvre

paris, je t'aime

pont neuf

5kg of nutella. heaven

notre dame

notre dame

listening to hymns

île saint louis

busking fun

mmm baguettes

reflections

arc de triomphe