We did venture outside of Paris one day. We took a train from the famed Gare St-Lazare station to see the home, studio and gardens of Impressionist painter Claude Monet in Giverny. The trip was about fifty minutes each way and about $35 (200F) per person round trip. The train actually stops in the town of Vernon, which is a few kilometers away from Giverny. Buses and taxis going to the museum can be found directly outside the station. While the weather in Paris had been hot and sunny, this was the one day that the skies clouded over. By the time we arrived at Monet’s home it was raining and the museum gift shop was doing a brisk business in "Water Lily" umbrellas and blue rain ponchos-which were much appreciated but made us all look like giant blueberries. The rain did nothing to detract from the beauty of the fabled gardens and flowers. If anything, the mist in the air blurred one’s vision just enough so that Monet’s paintings seemed to come to life before our eyes.
Before long, the sun burned through the clouds and the extraordinary colors became even more vibrant; the enormous irises, roses, tulips, wisteria and bougainvillea now iridescent and glistening with moisture. The wisteria-covered Japanese bridge at one end of the lily pond was particularly captivating. We walked around the pond and through the garden paths for several hours before we finally pulled ourselves away to return to Paris. A tip: go early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid the midday tour bus invasion, though even busloads of people couldn’t truly diminish the impact of this bit of paradise.
For those who do not wish to travel to Giverny, there is no shortage of Monet’s paintings in Paris. The L’Orangerie contains a magnificent collection of Impressionist art, including two large oval rooms whose walls are entirely covered by eight giant water lily murals. During our stay there was also an exhibition of Impressionist paintings of the Gare St-Lazare, which represented the pinnacle of modern progress at the time and was a favorite subject of many great painters. The show was at the Musee d’Orsay, itself a former train station which was turned into a museum in 1986. It is a lovely, open space that deserves a visit just for its vaulted glass ceiling, as well as its beautiful permanent collection. Other notable museums include the Musee Picasso and the Pompidou Center of Modern Art, which is closed for renovation for at least another year.
Our favorite, however, was the Rodin Museum (77 Rue de Varenne), located near Les Invalides, where Napoleon’s tomb can be found, and the Eiffel Tower. The Musee Rodin is housed in the building that was the artist’s home from 1908 until his death in 1917. Room after room are filled with both finished pieces and working models by the renowned sculptor and by Camille Claudel, who was Rodin’s pupil, muse and mistress (and an accomplished sculptor in her own right). Larger works such as the Burghers of Calais, the Thinker and the Gates of Hell can be found in the formal gardens surrounding the building. You could easily spend hours wandering around this comfortably small but tightly packed museum, which, like many of Paris’ museums, is worth seeing just for the building it is housed in-a lovely, extravagantly columned home built in 1730.