Musée de l'Orangerie

The Musée de l'Orangerie is the Paris museum built around Claude Monet's Water Lilies, in the Tuileries Garden by Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement. Eight monumental panels fill two oval rooms upstairs, and the Walter-Guillaume collection of Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso fills the lower floor. Tickets cost €12.50 online, and it suits anyone with an hour or two for Monet near the Louvre.

From greenhouse to Monet museum

The Orangerie was built in 1852 to shelter the garden's citrus trees through winter, with a long glazed wall facing south to catch the sun. Monet gave the French state his great cycle of Water Lilies, and the building was adapted to show them. The museum was inaugurated on 17 May 1927 as the Musée Claude Monet, a few months after the painter's death.

Eight panels lit by daylight from above

Each of the eight panels shows the water garden at Giverny at a different moment, and together they surround you with water, reflections and light. Daylight from the ceilings changes the colours through the day, and benches in the centre of each room let you sit and look for a while. The rooms fill quickly, so arrive at the 9am opening for the calmest view.

The Walter-Guillaume collection

The lower floor holds the collection assembled by the art dealer Paul Guillaume and continued by his widow Domenica with her second husband, Jean Walter. It came to the state in 1959 and 1963 and has been shown here since 1966. About 145 paintings include works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Henri Rousseau and Soutine. Temporary exhibitions run alongside.

91 metres of canvas and the 2000 to 2006 renovation

Each of the eight panels is about two metres high, and together they run for about 91 metres around the two oval rooms. Monet's gift was finalised in 1922. The rooms you see today date from the 2000 to 2006 renovation by Olivier Brochet, which removed a later upper floor, restored natural light to the Water Lilies and dug out basement galleries for the Walter-Guillaume collection; the museum reopened on 17 May 2006. That collection was acquired in stages (Jean Walter in 1959, Paul Guillaume in 1963) and first shown to the public in 1966.