Waterlilies

Its clear that when I let the guys do the blogging, you miss out on the arty commentary, and it would be a shame not to comment on the waterlilies and the gallery built just for them.

We saw Monet's waterlily paintings (many of them, actually) yesterday when we visited the Orangerie, a museum dedicated to Impressionist art. They are displayed in two oval rooms that are all white (you can see one of them in the photo in yesterday's blog), with filtered light (both natural and artificial) from the ceiling. It is truly lovely and breathtaking, one of the most beautiful sights we've seen here, in my opinion. I'm so glad that John has planned a trip to Giverny (where the gardens that inspired it are) while we are in Normandy.

Though the Waterlilies are the most famous of the items in the collection at the Orangerie, there are lots of other lovely works. Its kind of funny to say, oh yeah, there were some works by Picasso, Renior, and Matisse there too, but there ya have it. Alexa was happy to see the painting depicting the comedia del'arte actors (she is in a photo with the painting in yesterday's blog).

When we were on the Champs E'lysse (I'm too lazy to look up the correct spelling), I was struck by how interesting the layout was - there are the stores with a sidewalk next to them, then a line of tress, then another sidewalk wide enough for several people across. The car dealerships were interesting - not just the Peugot and Renault, but also Lexus and other high end brands you see in the US.