Museum tours specially curated to show how gardens influenced paintings and the decorative arts.
Whether a first-time or returning visitor, Paris offers exceptional opportunities to see art. At the Louvre, we learn how artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Jean Honoré Fragonard were inspired by gardens, and discover that many sculptures were originally commissioned for gardens. At the Musée d’Orsay, we look at Impressionist paintings and recount the fascinating stories about artists and their gardens. House museums provide a canvas for exploring why patrons commissioned garden paintings and designs to decorate their historic homes.
Then & Now: Each tour begins with an iBook presentation of images selected from historical archives, providing a comparative context for viewing Paris today. After the tour, you can add your own photos to create a personal souvenir of your Picturesque Voyage.
Admission tickets are an additional per person fee, they are pre-purchased by us and added to the price. Please be prepared to pass through security screening which is required for all visitors and may prolong waiting times.
Picturesque Voyages Tours Adhere to Recommended Health and Safety Guidelines
- Masks can be provided upon request.
- Tours are limited to 6 people. Family groups may be larger.
- Our tours maintain social distancing standards.
Custom tours are our specialty. Contact us to plan a personalized itinerary for a most memorable, life-long learning experience.
The Hôtel de la Marine at the Place de la Concorde
3-Hour Museum Tour: Prices Available Upon Request
Located in the center of Paris at the Place de la Concorde, this ‘palace within the city’ is a unique monument. Commissioned by Louis XV, the famed neoclassical architect Jacques Ange Gabriel conceived as a of design house to showcase French savoir-faire in furniture and decorative arts. The Garde-Meuble supplied the king’s palaces with furniture, curtains, wall hangings and decorative arts. The royal collections of armor, and the crown jewels were also housed there. Closed to the public for over 225 years, today the building ho some presents some of the best examples of eighteenth century interior design. From 1789 until 2020, the French Navy had its headquarters in the building where several historic events unfolded, notably the signing of the treaty that abolished slavery. Our tour includes a short history of the Place de la Concorde, a tour of the eighteenth and nineteenth century interiors of the Hotel de la Marine, and an explication of the architectural history of the site.
Musée d’Orsay: Impressionist Landscapes
3-Hour Museum Tour Prices Available Upon Request (admission tickets pre-purchased and allow priority access, but they are not refundable Please be prepared to pass through security screening which is required for all visitors and may prolong waiting times)
The Musée d’Orsay houses one of the most superb collections of 19th and early 20th century art in the world. For first-time visitors, we begin our tour with an overview of the masterworks by Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Gustav Courbet, whose works helps us better understand both the Impressionist and the Post-Impressionist masterpieces found on the upper floors. Our tours specifically examine Impressionist paintings of gardens.
If you are interested in learning more about the relationship between art and gardens, we recommend our tour to Giverny. We also recommend our visit to the Orangerie Museum to see Claude Monet’s exceptional waterlily paintings. (Please note that the Orangerie Museum may be closed during the Olympic Games)
The Louvre: Art History and Gardens
3-Hour Museum Tour – Prices Available Upon Request (admission tickets pre-purchased but provide priority access, but they are not refundable. Please be prepared to pass through security screening which is required for all visitors and may prolong waiting times)
Our tour of the Louvre helps make one of the world’s most visited museums accessible and meaningful. Our thematic tours are inspired by gardens. We examine French still-life and landscape paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries, including the works of French masters Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorraine, and the 18th-century works by Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin. At the sculpture courts, we discuss how these masterworks were originally intended for gardens of now-lost châteaux.
Jacquemart André: An Exceptional Legacy
3-Hour Museum and Garden Tour – Prices Available Upon Request (admission tickets pre-purchased and not refundable. Please be prepared to pass through security screening which is required for all visitors and may prolong waiting times)
This museum tour steps back into the Belle Epoque, when aspiring young artist Nelié Jacquemart met fabulously wealthy banker Edouard André. The pair embarked on a life-long passion for collecting art that they displayed in their home. On view are paintings by 18th-century French painters, including Jacques-Louis David, and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, and Italian masters Botticelli and Perugino, all displayed in a sumptuous setting of winter gardens, a smoking room, and private apartments.
We visit their home, and learn about their lavish lifestyle and their magnificent collections. There is an option to have lunch or coffee in the former dining room under a fresco ceiling painted by Tieoplo, the 18th-century Venetian painter.
If you want to learn more about Nélie Jacquemart, a female artist, collector, and worldwide traveler, we can arrange an excursion to the Abbaye de Chaalis, a ruined monastery that Jacquemart purchased in 1902 to house her Italian paintings.
The Rodin Museum and Gardens
3-Hour Museum and Garden Tour – Prices Available Upon Request (admission tickets are pre-purchased are not refundable. Please be prepared to pass through security screening which is required for all visitors and may prolong waiting times)
Auguste Rodin is one of the most celebrated modern sculptors who lived and worked in an 18th-century mansion, still known today as the Hôtel Biron. When built in the 1730s, the mansion was at the edge of the city, allowing its owners to enjoy the pleasures of both town and country. The museum showcases Rodin’s sculptures in stone, bronze, and plaster, as well as paintings and drawings, including works by his contemporaries Monet and Van Gogh. We learn about Rodin’s career, his techniques, and his influence on other artists. We discuss the museography of the museum – both studio and home to his own collections – and we devote special attention to how Rodin placed his sculptures, such as the Gates of Hell and The Thinker, in the garden. Renovated by landscape architect Jacques Sgard, the garden features over 100 varieties of roses.
The Orangerie: Monet’s Waterlilies
3-Hour Museum Tour – Prices Available Upon Request. Tickets are not refundable. Please be prepared to pass through security screening which is required for all visitors and may prolong waiting times, Entrance cannot be guaranteed during the Olympic Games)
The Orangerie Museum, located in the Tuileries gardens and overlooking the Place de la Concorde, displays eight large decorative panels by Claude Monet from his waterlilies series. These modern masterpieces provide a unique opportunity to study the relationship between gardens and painting. Monet donated the canvases to the nation at the end of World War I, and they are now displayed in rooms designed especially for them. In addition to these masterworks of Impressionism, the museum houses the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collections of 19th and 20th century art, including works by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso. Please be advised that the Orangerie Museum may be closed during the Olympic Games.
To learn more about Claude Monet and his gardens, consider combining this tour with our excursion to Giverny.
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