June 11, Musée de l'Orangerie

An unusual stroke of luck- the workers strike yielded an unrivaled viewing experience. Today we traveled to the Musée de l'Orangerie. This museum is most famous for the entry rooms, which house enormous Monet paintings displayed in the round. Because of the workers strike only group reservations were allowed into the museum. We entered the museum as the first and only visitors.

We entered to find breathtaking paintings and total stillness in the space. The circular room and circular paintings allow one to be completely enveloped by these 15- 20 ft canvases. The museum recently reopened after years of renovation and the new display system allows filtered light to fall onto and illuminate the canvases. Light is an integral part of Monet’s work, and is an equally important part of displaying his work. If you let yourself stand in front of the work, you can see how the shifting light highlights and changes the paintings’ palettes in subtle but beautiful ways.
In the evening we attended the opening night of the Ircam music festival. At the Theatre du Chatelet we listened to a piece entitled “Fado”; a combination of modern Fado music interwoven with a medieval Portuguese poem.