Since there have been alot of questions about the Orangerie I thought I would post my experience.
My goal was to visit the gift shop only. My mom has always wanted to go to the Orangerie and I will be traveling to the US next week so I thought a belated mothers day gift was in order. As I live here I planned to visit the museum after the crowds subsided. I went to the museum on Monday. There was a HUGE line. I mean really huge and moving slowly. I walked up to the front and past everyone with the intent of just going in the gift shop. I was stopped by the guy manning the line. I inquired about the gift shop and was told it was AFTER you give your ticket so you cant access without visiting the collection. Sigh.
The next day I went to the FNAC and purchased a reservation for 2 pm today. You can buy a reservation for no earlier than the two days later (not including days of closure). Your reservation allows you to enter the museum beginning at the reservation time and within one hour pas that time. I showed up about 2:15 and walked by the zillions of people in line all the way up to the front. When you get to the front there is a seperate area for reservations and museum passes. There was no one in the reservation line and I was promptly let in much to the annoyance of those at the front of the other line. I will have to admit taking a little bit of pleasure in being whisked right in.
The museum is magnificient. The water lilly paintings were a true marvel. The installation is beautiful and the natural light is a big plus. I also noted that they did not allow too many people at once in the museum. So, though it was busy, it was not packed which allows you to enjoy the paintings. I then proceeded downstairs to see the rest of the collection. It%26#39;s an outstanding collection with many incredible works from picasso, monet, renoir, modigliani etc You can also see a bit of the old fortified wall that caused the delay of the opening.
They have a theatre with a film that talks about the renovation of the Orangerie. It is in French with no subtitles. I did watch the film as it was very interesting. I learned that the entire building was completely gutted. There was basically a frame left holding up the glass roof. Everything else was removed. The water lilly paintings, as most of you probably know, were left in the building during demolition and reconstruction as they could not be moved. Seeing the way the paintings were incased and verified regularly was very interesting.
Not only did they gut the original building but they also dug a large lower level that is about twice the size of the structure above ground. This is where they ran into the wall that caused the delay of the opening. It ran right through the planned lower level, cutting it in two. The project was immediately suspended while a decision was made concerning the wall. After much debate (almost two years) they decided to remove a portion of the wall so they could maintain the original plan and integrate the remainder.
I am not surprised that the project took many years and it so extensive. The result is an amazing small museum with an incredible collection that I would recommend.
|||
That is very helpful advice, Morgan.
Is there a way to buy a reservation by means other than going to FNAC in person?
|||
You can book them at www.fnac.com or www.francebillet.com . i have no idea if they will mail them hower. I was booking for two days later so the fnac site only offered in store pick up.
|||
5th page!
ttt :-)
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 6:19 am, August 15, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment