"I Spend My Life Painting"

Under the cleaned surface of La Pie, the snow is not plain white. Lifting the yellowed varnish exposed a white built from countless coloured touches and a blue shadow long dulled. The 1869 Salon turned the picture down; now it leads Orsay's Monet centenary.

There's no separate room. Five recently studied or restored paintings hang through the Impressionist gallery (rooms 29 to 35, level 5), with Monet's letters beside them, each tied to a problem he set himself: a snowy landscape, a life-size family meal, a 3-metre canvas painted in his garden, whether to varnish. You walk the permanent collection and keep catching him mid-argument with himself. The lab work, done with the C2RMF, found pentimenti and major changes of composition, which undercuts Monet's own story of painting on the spot in one go.

It's covered by the €16 timed museum ticket (€12 on Thursday evenings, open to 9:45pm; free for under-18s and EEA residents under 26). Reception is under renovation until summer 2028, so check access conditions first.