Setting Sun

I walk the same Paris city streets regularly. As I do so, I try to let the unexpected catch my attention, as well as enjoy the familiar that still fills my heart with joy.

But I do wonder. Will I stop seeing the beauty around me, in the way that we stop looking at the paintings or posters that hang in our homes? Will I begin to take this beautiful city for granted?

Thankfully it doesn't take much to snap me out of my musings. Just a turn or lifting of the head at just the right moment, and there it is, that connection with the here and now in all its perfection.

Walking home from a stroll along the Seine recently, skirting the Hotel de Ville from the back, I noticed the setting sun catching the yellow of the Metro "M", making it seem partially lit up.

Publicity

There are people who are offended by the advertising billboards in the metros. I -- generally -- don't mind them. They keep me occupied while I wait for the trains, and sometimes they even make my heart pitter-patter.

This happens time and time again when I see ads for exhibits at the Louvre and other museums. Since I don't read the Pariscope to find out when exhibits happen, I find out by the advertising in the subway. This is how I found out about the Jules Bastien-Lepage exhibit at the Musee d'Orsay. Bastien-Lepage painted one of my all-time favorite paintings, Joan of Arc, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

And better yet, when I take a picture of them, I'm thrilled by the esthetics not only of the ad, but the tiles around the ad, and then the people that happen to walk into the frame (both photographic and billboard).