Musée de l'Orangerie

Musée de l'Orangerie (Jardin des Tuileries)

Sit inside a ring of Monet's water lilies

⚠ Closed Tuesdays

Hours

09:00–18:00 (last entry 17:15), closed Tuesdays; some Fridays open until 21:00. Closed 1 May, the morning of 14 July, 25 Dec

Tickets

Online €12.50; combined Orsay ticket €20 (per the official site). Free for under-18s and some other groups; free first Sunday of the month with online booking

Address

Inside the Tuileries Garden, the Seine-side building at the Place de la Concorde end

This was a winter greenhouse for the Tuileries orange trees. On the ground floor, two oval rooms are wrapped in eight of Monet's Water Lilies panels, lit by daylight through the ceiling so the colours shift through the day. Each panel is about two metres high, and from the bench in the middle it feels like standing in the pond. Downstairs there are Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso, but most people linger in the lily rooms. It is small enough to pair with the Louvre or Orsay on the same day.