Musée du Louvre
I have seen galleries filled with matted and marbled beauty created by the best of men and the divine;
the attempt to express reality in ways words can never communicate.
Subtle hues evoke emotions and feelings of joy, mystery, sorrow, horror, frailty;
not unlike the images of the Greatest Creator speaking His masterpiece into existence.
Louvre
La Joconde (Mona Lisa) by Leonardo da Vinci
I have seen the masses feast their eyes on a simple, smiling young maiden as she represents the goal of a pilgrimage through marble corridors and staircases;
surrounded by the masters of the ages, neglected, ignored in the mad rush to Da Vinci’s maiden.
What is it about her smile that draws the young, the old, the educated and the naïve to her side?
[In September, David and I returned to Paris for a week of vacation. For this particular trip, we agreed to see Paris in a new way. As the English novelist, Lawrence Durrell said, one must “travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, sit quietly and observe and smell and listen for the spirit of the place which is the most important determinant in culture…one should tune in, idly, but with real inward attention”. Therefore, in the style of Hemingway’s vignettes (1922 Paris), we have shared our reflections and “quiet, inward” observations of this enigmatic city.]
My French Quest 