Today, everything you need (or don’t need) to know about the Orangerie!
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Where is the Museum of the Orangery?
It’s in the garden of the Tuileries, by the Seine, next to the Louvre. There used to be a castle in the garden, but it burnt. The name “Tuileries” refers to tile factories that were nearby.
What’s an orangery?
It’s a building designed for storing fragile bushes and trees during winter, when the temperatures get low. It protects them from the cold. Orange trees (and others) need protection from the cold because they come from a warmer climate than the climate of Paris.
“Jeunes filles au piano” / “Girls playing the piano” (Renoir)
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée de l’Orangerie)
What’s in it?
It’s my favourite museum in Paris. It was built in 1852 and turned into a museum in 1927. It has a whole room dedicated to a painting, the “Nymphéas” by Claude Monet on the ground floor, and an exhibition and permanent collections underground. It has the most beautiful collection of 19th-century and early 20th-century paintings you’ll ever see: Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin…
What’s this twin building?
There are actually two museums in the garden of Tuileries: the Orangery and the Jeu de Paume. The latter is a picture museum, it was built in 1861 and looks a lot like the Orangery.
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