Friday 12 April 2013

Water lilies, weapons of war, bronze beauties, arch of triumph - a day of contrasts

10/4/13 Wednesday
We're up to day 3 on our Paris museum pass and we've planned another pretty full one - because we might as well get the most out of it!!
The Musée de l'Orangerie is just a tiny museum/art gallery by Paris standards, and certainly when compared to the enormity of the Musée du Louvre and its ilk. Unassuming and nestled in a corner of the Jardins des Tuileries, the Musée de l'Orangerie houses a star-studded cast. On this site the Orangery of the Tuileries was originally built in 1852, but soon lost its fruit trees to become a storehouse, and eventually the museum that it is today.
We start our visit in the 2 galleries housing Monet's famous montage of water lilies, Les Nymphéas, on which he worked for 30 years from 1914. Monet himself chose the Orangery to house the complete cycle of his landscape of water lilies, weeping willows, reflections of trees and clouds. The panels are 2 metres high and almost 100 metres long overall, and are arranged so as to give the viewer the impression of an endless and all-encompassing pond - no sky, horizon or pond edge to be seen. The colours are exquisite and peaceful and very much appeal to my preference for blue in nature, in decorating, and in art :-) We enjoy the audio commentary, the accompanying music and the story of Monet's beautiful creation. There are no photos allowed, but you can always rely on Google images............ ;-)


Downstairs is a veritable smorgasbord of famous names and their works, in the Paul Guillaume collection - Modigliani, Cezanne, Renoir, Rousseau, Matisse, Soutine, Picasso.............





This is truly a lovely collection and, in my opinion, better than any art in any museum we've seen so far. If you're wanting my recommendation, it's not to be missed.
From here we walk across the beautiful Pont Alexandre III to the Hôtel national des Invalides, built in 1671 by Louis XIV (this guy pops up everywhere!!!) to house "........ all officers, crippled, old and retired alike". It is also, now, the site for the Musée de l'Armée, and the iconic Église du Dôme, a military pantheon and location of the tomb of Napoleon I.


The gold dome is a Paris icon, but it's a surprise to me just how huge this place is. I start off pretty well, quite interested in the amazing suits of armour dating to the 1600s (or earlier) and weapons dating back to before the time of Christ. But after a while my museum fatigue starts to set in and it feels like it's just going on and on and on and on.............



........... eventually I'm sitting trying not to nod off in front of some video footage or other about one of the many, many, many wars in French history, while mon amour continues to enjoy the amazing and detailed displays.



Around lunch-time, we take a break from the endless halls of displays and head to the church with the iconic gold dome to see the monstrosity that is Napoleon Boneparte's tomb - down in the crypt but able to be viewed from above (as evidenced by the circle of school children leaning over the balustrade and peering into the bowels of the crypt below) - it's amazing, such a huge coffin for (reputedly) such a little (in stature) man (with a BIG reputation though)!!!


After lunch we continue in another area of the museum. By the time we get to the late 1800s, then WWI and WW2 my head is about to explode................ that's it for me, I'm done. Luckily, I'm not the only one, and we call it a day - for this museum anyway :-)
Literally just across the street from Les Invalides, is the Musée Rodin. Last time I visited this collection of Rodin's sculptures housed in the 18th century Hôtel Biron where Rodin lived for a while, it was December, and snowing. My gorgeous youngest son could not have been less interested in going inside to view the sculptures; all he wanted to do was stay in the garden and make snowballs :-) xoxo
Today there is no snow, for which I'm thankful. The house is undergoing major renovations, which appear to be much needed, the building is definitely showing its age. The displays inside are restricted because of the renovations - "an ensemble of emblematic works" - and we're clearly not seeing everything I saw 7 years ago, which is a little disappointing.



Outside in the garden there are more renovations going on - the fountains and landscaping are undergoing a facelift, but it's still possible to wander and enjoy the sculptures and the spring flowers that are starting to appear in this beautiful garden.




Although our feet and legs are aching - there's something about the way you walk around museums and galleries that makes you sore in a different way to more "normal" walking and exercise - my easy-going and accommodating new husband agrees to walk across the river to the Champs Élysées and up to the Arc de Triomphe. I've never climbed to the top before and although it's been a bit rainy today the cloud is high so we're hoping for a reasonable view. There are 284 spiral steps up, and it starts raining again before we begin the climb. By the time we reach the top the weather has closed in somewhat, which is a little disappointing as we need our umbrellas up, but the view is still pretty good - we can make out all the significant landmarks. It's windy and we have to hold tightly to our umbrellas and juggle cameras, but we get some souvenir photos, walk around the perimeter, then head back down.



When we get to the bottom, there's some sort of ceremony about to happen. They've fenced off the centre and a crowd is gathering. We're on the other side of the arch, the dignitaries have their backs to us, but we have a front-row view because of that!! We're not sure what we've stumbled upon, but it's definitely something military. There are old men with their great-coats, berets and military medals, young men in very impressive uniforms, one old guy directing the action, people holding flags and lining up under the arch, the laying of wreaths in front of the flame.



We can't understand anything they're saying, but later I Google this event and discover that it happens tous les soirs (every night!!!). This ritual pays tribute to the "Great Dead", where each evening at 6.30pm one of 900 associations of former combatants, regrouped as an association called La Flamme sous l'Arc de Triomphe, rekindles the Memorial Flame (burning continuously since 1923) over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. How's that for an ongoing commitment to French national military pride? As for us, it's cold and rainy now and we're not feeling very committed to staying out in this weather, so we're off to hop on the Metro and home to a nice warm and dry apartment. Three days down, one to go...................

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