L’Arc de Triomphe et La Musée de l’Orangerie
L’Arc de Triomphe, perhaps the second-most recognizable monolith in the skyline of Paris, lies at the western end of Champs d’Élysées, a name synonymous with haute couture.
Blaire and I walked along the broad avenue, looking for gifts for friends and family to discover that haute couture is out of our price range the way the stars are out of our reach. Our books spoke of end of season sales of 50 or even 60 percent off, but even $300 off a pair of $600 pair of pants—that looked suspiciously like the $10 pair I owned, but without tears and gaudy application of rhinestones—were far from the clearance sales that we are accustomed to.
We hiked down the mile of shops to the vast roundabout of cars forever circling around the ethereal beauty of the Arch glowing as bugs buzz around a bright bulb during the twilight. A kindly woman took our photo and we strolled back along the overpriced shops and boutiques and headed back to our “home” neighborhood.
La Musée de l’Orangerie is a small museum—which is to say, small for Paris; the building would easily gobble up a city block or two back in our neck of the woods—showcasing Monet’s famous water lily paintings. Eight panoramic paintings wrap the walls in two circular rooms and delighted us with their fuzzy, beautiful wonder.
The rest of the museum was a bit disappointing for Blaire and I. We believed it to contain a near-complete collection of his work, but instead was a collection of various Impressionism painters. Impressive though they were, they were no Monets.
