Visiting the Musée de l’Orangerie
This post may contain affiliate links and I may receive commission if you visit a link and buy something. Purchasing via an affiliate link doesn’t cost you any extra, and I only recommend products and services I trust.
When we went to Paris we wanted to tick off as many monuments and museums as we could and, thanks to our Paris Museum Pass, we saw for more than we ever expected. One place we are so glad we got the chance to visit is the Musée de l’Orangerie.
What is Musée de l’Orangerie?
Musée de l’Orangerie is a museum of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. The museum features eight large paintings by Claude Monet, the Water Lilies cycle, that cover the walls of two large oval rooms. As well as this, the museum is home to pieces by Renoir, Sisley, Claude Monet, Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and more.
Where is Musée de l’Orangerie?
The Musée de l’Orangerie is in the Jardin des Tuileries, right next to Place de la Concorde and the Louvre, alongside the River Seine. It’s easily accessibly by foot from all over Paris or by using the fantastic public transport system in Paris. You could also get a taxi but we loved weaving it into a day in Paris spent on foot.
Visiting Musée de l’Orangerie
We visited the Musée de l’Orangerie one morning in Paris, shortly after having a tour of the Louvre and wandering around the Jardin des Tuileries. The museum is a nice place to visit for a sit down and to break up a busy day or to just experience on a slower day in Paris.
When you first arrive at Musée de l’Orangerie your tickets are scanned and you have to go through airport style security. If you have luggage or even just a backpack it has to be left in a free cloakroom until the end of your visit.
The Musée de l’Orangerie is laid out over two real floors – the ground floor and a basement level – along with a middle level that is just home to the shop and cafe.
When we visited Musée de l’Orangerie we first went straight to the Water Lilies. Spread across two circular rooms, the Monet paintings are beautiful. There’s plenty of seating to be able to sit and enjoy the artworks and you can spend as long as you like in each room.
In all honesty, we are not really art gallery people. But, there are some works of art that everyone just has to see – and the Water Lillies are some of them. Because of this we didn’t really sit and admire the art but we happily walked form one to the other, immediately blown away by the scale of the paintings and the vastness of the rooms they were in.
Afterwards we worked our way downstairs where we enjoyed some of the other paintings – all by familiar names of famous artists but in most cases, lesser known works. The Water Lillies are definitely the stars of the show at Musée de l’Orangerie but you should definitely wander downstairs to see the rest of the collection too.
We enjoyed seeing all the artwork and spent about an hour at the Musée de l’Orangerie before heading on our way. It’s somewhere anyone should visit once – and if you have a Paris Museum Pass it makes the visit feel free too!
You can find out more about Musée de l’Orangerie over on their website and for reference the address is: Jardin des Tuileries, 75001 Paris, France
