Monet at Midnight

This was the scene as we left the Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris just after midnight this morning (00:17 according to my camera; the blip is photomerged from 2 images). See it large

The record-breaking show included 170 works, and was open the last four days (three nights) continuously; it ran from 22 September until today. About nine hundred thousand [edited] visitors attended, with waits of up to five hours for those without advance tickets. (When we first tried on line in the fall, tickets were sold out, but a friend notified us when the nocturnal tickets for the last weekend became available, so we were able to enter with only a half-hour wait last evening.)

The exhibition was marvelous, and less crowded than we feared--the best rooms were toward the end, with about a dozen sets of Monet's series paintings, starting with haystacks and the Rouen cathedral.

The next major show at the Grand Palais is displayed faintly in the right background: "Nature et idéal : le Paysage (landscape) à Rome, 1600-1650", including Carraci, Poussin and Claude Lorrain, opening in March.