In 1922 Monet donated his panoramic cycle of paintings, the Water Lillies, to France. He chose the Orangerie, a stone and glass building originally conceived as a hothouse to protect potted orange trees in winter, as his choice for housing the paintings. It is found in the Tuleries Garden. It wasn’t until 1926 that the paintings were finally put in place there, after Monet’s death. The Orangerie was closed in 2000 for refurbishment and not reopened until 2006. There was a delay because they found portions of an ancient wall which once surrounded what was then Paris. It had to be preserved.

I was interested to finally visit the museum and hoping that there might be some sort of visit to the wall that had been uncovered but, if there was, I missed it. What I didn’t miss were the splendid paintings of Monet, eight panels of water lillies, set into curving walls. I think they did a spectacular job of displaying them. It is a joy to sit in the middle of each of the two ovals and look at how Monet saw the flowers floating in his own pond in different light.

A view of half of the curving room

A little closer

A closeup of those famous water lillies

What they might have looked like had Monet done them in water color.

 I was tagged by Chamara at  Gypsy Purple to list six weird things about myself. I am sitting here blank, not a thought. I really am boringly normal although I’m sure some people, mostly family, could come up with a long list. Here is all I can come up with. Hmmm.  I think I am a little weird.

1. I am a true old fashioned person as far as music is concerned. I am not up on the latest music although now and then as I channel surf I find myself at MTV and see the latest crop of singers. I think the Beatles were the last group of which I could sing every song on their albums. (Note I say albums and not CD’s)I don’t have much memory of listening to my parent’s collection of records but when an old song comes up on the radio, from the 40’s or 50’s, I know every word. I’m not sure how I obtained this knowledge but I can sing along with Tony Bennett or Peggy Lee to just about anything.

2. I can read anywhere. I think I started doing this because I am very impatient and I can calm myself down waiting in long lines by reading. I read in the bathtub if I have one available-only a shower in Paris-I read in the car at red lights in the States, I read on the metro, while waiting for a movie to start. I go crazy on airplanes if I don’t have something to read, unless there is a good movie showing. There is an incredibly boring stretch of highway between Tucson and Phoenix, AZ that, truly, only has two places where the road is not perfectly straight. It is a two hour drive. One time I had to go by myself on this stretch of highway and I was so bored that I held my book up to the right of the steering wheel and read the whole way. Needless to say, there was very little traffic on the road and I arrived safely. I realized that this was a little rash and haven’t done it since.

3.Because I am impatient, I am not a cool driver. I also don’t want to go the speed limit, I want to get where I am going quickly. It was a real habit and I was on the constant look out for policemen. One day I decided it was stupid and that there were speed limits for a reason. It took me months to break my speeding habit. Now I make myself go the speed limit and I never have to worry about a ticket–unless I am really late.

4. I have to make my bed every morning. I hate coming home and finding my bed unmade. I can have weeks worth of dust on every surface and things piled on the dining room table but you will never find my bed unmade. I think this was instilled in me by my mother. She is a woman with the cleanest house you will ever see. You truly could eat off her floor without getting dust balls or hair in your food.

5. I am the only person in the world-at least it feels like it-who doesn’t drink coffee. I never have. I tried it in college and didn’t like the bitter taste or the after taste. At the time I wasn’t used to caffeine and didn’t like the jittery feeling. I will now happily drink Bailey’s or kahlua with cream, which are both made with coffee, so I think if I added enough cream and sugar to coffee I would drink it but since I’m not in the habit anyway, and I don’t need the extra calories, I haven’t put this to the test.

6. I drink Diet Coke for breakfast in the summer. It’s cold, it has caffeine, it’s refreshing. What’s the difference between Coke and coffee, really. Back in my skinny days, I would have a big glass of milk and a Ding Dong (a sort of chocolate covered Twinkie for those not from America). I excused this by pointing out that people were eating donuts for breakfast. I have a real sweet tooth. I finally met my match in Maurice who actually can eat more chocolate than me.

 I have so many more photos of Marrakech but this will be my last lot of photos before I move back to Paris as a subject. I’ve got them so you have to see them.

 One of the larger mosques in Marrakech. If you are not a man or a muslem, you are not allowed inside mosques. I think they are mostly bare open spaces anyway as they don’t sculpt or paint images.

 You cannot go anywhere without being offered mint tea. They don’t serve it in cups with handles but in decorated glasses. I like mint but mint tea isn’t my favorite. Some places stuffed fresh mint leaves into the glasses as well.

 Camels were out where the palm trees were. You could ride them and they charged you to take a photo.

 Fresh eggs and fresh chickens for sale in a market. They would kill the chicken right there in front of you, stick the body in boiling water to get rid of the feathers and there you had your chicken for a meal. It didn’t smell very good.

 Doesn’t just seeing this sign for the direction of Casablanca fill you with a longing to see it? It must be because of that movie of the same name with Humphre Bogart. Such a romantic movie. It sounds like an exotique city full of casbahs and intrigue but I understand that it is very modern.