Monet painted them a few years before he died with this museum in mind. He was going blind as he painted them so it's very interesting to see the progression from detailed to more abstract in the paintings.
My friend Lauren admiring one of the paintings.
Overall I really enjoyed this museum: it is quite small so once you are getting sick of things, you realize that you're done! It also has lots of work by Renoir, Picasso, and Matisse. Also, as you can tell from the name, it is situated in the old orangery of the Tuileries palace. I like imagining the building's past life as a greenhouse for orange trees!
Here in France, April Fool's Day is called "Poisson d'Avril," or "April Fish." Supposedly, April Fool's Day originated here in 1564 when France switched to the Gregorian calendar. On the old calendar, April 1st would be New Year's Day and so those who resisted the new calendar and celebrated New Year's Day in April were ridiculed. I'm not sure how that relates to fish but I do know that today, children cut out pieces of paper shaped like fish and try to sneakily tape them to their friend's backs. In fact...we spotted more than one occurrence of this today!
