24 A tale of two French gardens
While you can immerse yourself in Claude Monet’s epic Water Lilies series in a museum within the Jardin des Tuileries, the actual garden that inspired it is only 50 miles outside Paris, so it's perfectly possible to visit both within a weekend. Spend your first morning at the Musee de l'Orangerie (musee-orangerie.fr http://musee-orangerie.fr), contemplating Monet's enthralling murals spread across two oval rooms. Break for lunch at La Palette, a turn-of-the-century Left Bank cafe popular with students, artists and art dealers and hung with reproduction canvases (cafelapaletteparis.comhttp://cafelapaletteparis.com;). Next, head for the Musee Marmottan Monet, where more than 100 of Monet's paintings are on display (marmottan.fr http://marmottan.fr). On day two, head for Gare Saint-Lazare in the eighth arrondissement, the station immortalised in Monet's painting of the same name, and take a train to Vernon (from £6; one hour) in order to reach Monet's Garden at Giverny (fondation-monet.comhttp://monet.com;). Standing on the Japanese-style bridge to admire the water-lily pond, you may feel as though you've strayed into a painting.
STAY At Hotel Saint-Jacques Paris, rooms have Belle Epoque-inspired decor, and there's a bar named after Monet's contemporary, Toulouse-Lautrec (from £190;paris-hotel-stjacques.comhttp://paris-hotel-stjacques.com;).
Read the complete article and many more in this issue of
Lonely Planet
Purchase options below
If you own the issue,
Login to read the full article now.
Single Digital Issue
February 2019
This issue and other back issues are not included in a new Lonely Planet subscription. Subscriptions include the latest regular issue and new issues released during your subscription.