Round and round we go

One of the smaller museums that I've missed on my previous Paris trips was the Musee L'Orangerie in the Jardin des Tuileries. It was an oversight that I was happy to correct on this visit.

Marlon, Gutsy and I were welcomed by Rodin's The Kiss right outside the museum door. It's the third I've seen, after the ones at the Musee Rodin and the sculpture garden in Martigny.

The centerpieces of the Musee L'Orangerie are a pair of tranquil white oval-shaped rooms that house Monet's famous paintings of water lilies, Les Nympheas.

Six of about 250 paintings by Monet on the same theme are housed here.

Something about the scale of the paintings, or maybe the peace and beauty of its subjects, made the mood in these round halls somewhat contemplative.

The visitors remind me of people watching films on a panoramic screen... except it's not the images that change, but what you're thinking about them.

I was just glad that the rooms were cool and quiet, making them a perfect place to hide from the hot sun. I'm learning to love it when the sun is out, but too much still annoys me. Yes, I'm still Asian.

Downstairs was a collection of mostly impressionist paintings, including works from Cezanne, Modigliani, Matisse, Monet and others. The one I liked the most was this portrait of Coco Chanel by the artist Marie Laurencin.

It was annoyingly hot outside, so we scrapped our plan to go walking around the gardens after the museum. Instead, we repaired to Laduree, which was just a few minutes away.

I'd been to Laduree once before with Gutsy and Tria, in 2006. But I couldn't afford more than just a coffee back then. Not even one of Laduree's famed macarons.

This time, I had a lime-vanilla sorbet... with a fleur de sel (salted caramel) macaron. Both of them were absolutely divine: so light and sweet, flavorful without being overpowering.

Marlon immortalized my first bite of Laduree's famous macarons on camera. Each bite was definitely a mmm-mmm-mmmmoment. 

In addition to the fleur de sel, Gutsy and I also shared a pistachio and an orange blossom macaron.



After the oval rooms at L'Orangerie, I guess you could say that round shapes were the theme of the day!