Paris: 10 Things to Do

As much as it delights first-timers, the Orangerie is ripe for repeat visits. The gallery's appeal lies in part in a pleasing sense of scale — it doesn't crowd too much together, but gives the works on offer their due. That offering includes Claude Monet's masterworks, the Nymphéas (Water Lilies), painted in the artist's garden at Giverny and donated to the French state. Monet stipulated that the monumental panels be displayed precisely as they are seen today, in twin oval rooms that surround enraptured viewers with his vision. The gallery also houses, in its specially built subterranean section, the superb Walter-Guillaume collection of post-impressionist works — keep an eye out for Modigliani's portrayal of the fedora-topped collector Paul Guillaume as modern art's Nova Pilota (New Helmsman). Afterward, let impressions settle with a walk through the Tuileries gardens, or feed the pigeons from a perch on the promenade.

• 1. Musée de l'Orangerie
  Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France; 33-(0)1-44-77-80-07 48.8638562.322272 musee-orangerie.fr