In the Footsteps of the Impressionists
From the museums that keep their masterpieces to the streets where the painters set up their easels.
The Impressionists painted Paris outdoors: station platforms wrapped in steam, dance halls on the hillside of Montmartre, gardens along the Seine. This journey starts with the canvases everyone wants to see, then walks you to the places where they were actually painted — ending on the platform of the station Monet turned into art.
The first 2 stops are free to read below — the full journey, with practical tips for every stop, unlocks with the 7-day Pass.
The Musée d’Orsay, the movement’s home
Start inside the Beaux-Arts railway station of 1900 that now holds the world’s largest Impressionist collection on its top floor. The movement took its name in 1874, when critics mocked Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” at a group show; here you can stand in front of the paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Sisley and Cézanne that shocked the Salons, before going out to find where they were made.
Tip · The Impressionist galleries are on the 5th floor — go straight up on arrival, before the crowds, and save the rest of the museum for after.
The Orangerie, Monet’s Water Lilies room
At the western end of the Tuileries gardens, the Orangerie keeps what Monet himself called his “Sistine Chapel” distraction: two oval rooms of Water Lilies, arranged to his instructions and opened in 1927, a year after his death. Natural light falls from the ceiling onto the canvas, so the ponds change colour with the weather — and the downstairs floor holds Cézanne, Renoir and Sisley from the Walter-Guillaume collection.
Tip · The Water Lilies rooms are almost empty first thing in the morning. Enter from Place de la Concorde side gardens and loop the two ovals twice.
🔒 4 more stops with the 7-day Pass
🔒 The Marmottan, home of “Impression, Sunrise”
The quiet museum where the painting that named the movement hangs.
La Muette station →🔒 The Moulin de la Galette, Renoir’s open-air ball
The Montmartre windmill where Renoir painted Sunday afternoon dancing.
Blanche station →🔒 Renoir’s garden at the Musée de Montmartre
The 17th-century house where Renoir and Utrillo painted.
Lamarck-Caulaincourt station →🔒 Monet’s Gare Saint-Lazare
The steam-filled station Monet painted seven times in 1877.
Saint-Lazare station →