Baby it's cold outside

It's been another miserable day weather wise. Only 12C or 60F AND it rained most of the day.

I went to the Theatre de la Ville, but tonight's concert with the Kronos Quartet was already sold out. Afterwards I headed to the Place de la Concorde, entered the Tuilleries gardens to visit the Musee de l'Orangerie. I stook on line under the rain for an hour.

This small building houses a unique collection of Monet panels depicting the Nenuphar series. Two oval rooms contain 8 panels; only 40 were painted in these dimensions.

Monet made these paintings between 1895 and 1926 (his death), working indoors and outdoors at his garden in Giverny in Normandy. Nympheas series (ie water lilies) as they are called, were promissed as a gift to the state during WWI, but Monet couldn't part with them until his death. The painter prepared a special studio for this project, and conceived the idea as a special retreat from modern life, a retreat for humankind.



I spent a lot of time at first looking at the paintings, and then watched the other visitors. Observed the observers so to speak. You can see my entire series, and all my travel pictures all the way back to 2001 by clicking this link that takes you to my flickr account.