Photo-a-Day - May: Day 31: Something Beautiful

Photo-a-Day - May: Day 31: Something Beautiful

I am one who believes we are surrounded by beauty every day, sometimes in the most mundane places.  However, this prompt caused me to think of those places most memorable to me.  This is one. 

When I was younger, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend three weeks in Paris with a friend.  She knew the husband of the assistant pastor for the American Church in Paris located on Quay d'Orsay between Place des Invalides and Tour Eiffel.  They very generously offered us free use their apartment while they were gone on their vacation touring Italy.  From their apartment, we could have breakfast on the balcony overlooking the Seine and walk or take the Metro anywhere we wanted to go, including Versailles and Chartres. 

Walking back to the apartment from La Louvre, late one afternoon, there was a magnificent sunset.   It turned the sky and the Seine into gold, casting the trees and two socles at the Left Bank end of the bridge into silhouette and reflecting them upon the river. 

The statues on the socles are the Renommée du Commerce ("Fame of Commerce") by Pierre Granet on one side and the Renommée de l'Industrie ("Fame of Industry") by Clement Steiner on the other.

It was a perfect trip and one I shall never forget.  Other than New England, Paris is the only place I felt at home the moment I landed there.