Stunning Waterlilies

Seeing Monet's Waterlilies in the Musee national de Orangerie has been the most moving experience so far.  I last saw these paintings in 1989 with my mother.  I have not seen them in close to 20 years.  They have undergone an amazing transformation.  The museum underwent an extensive renovation that took over 5 years.  When I was in Paris in 2000 it was closed for restoration, if my memory serves.  The paintings before were on display under florescent light below ground.  Now they have been moved to reconstructed rooms above ground as Monet intended.  Now the paintings can be viewed in natural light.  In a word "stunning" or "breath taking"...er... two words...they just take your breath away.  I do see the difference in the new facility.  Utterly amazing.  These 4 enormous canvases cover the room in a 360 degrees of Monet's sheer talent and vision. Wait there was an additional room with 4 paintings of the willow gardens too!  The filtered light from the ceiling plays on the canvas and the colors change in subtle ways.  These paintings filled me with wonderful memories of my mother, JoEllen Wheeler, to the point I was overcome with emotion seeing these paintings once again and recalling that I had spent time admiring them so many years ago with my Mom.  David and I did a reenactment of some pictures Mom and I took having a little fun with the Monet's willow trees.