It’s almost too easy to take cool pictures of the gargoyles of Notre Dame viewing the rooftops of Paris. This fellow reminds me of an employer way back, who when in a good mood would call me and another student holiday worker his ‘gargoyles’. Riiiight...
It was during a Contiki tour, this. It was our ‘free’ day, I’d hooked up with Nicola from Auckland and Nikki from Melbourne, and we were all in possession of a day pass to selected Parisian sights. Nikki didn’t climbed this high in the bell-tower, being even more irrationally afraid of heights than I am. As we passed out the great doors afterwards, we saw an ancient gypsy-like crone spit on the man in front of us, as he favoured another beggar’s palms to hers. I don’t think she put a curse on us all, but Nicola did suffer from very sore feet later in the day, which brought on a bout of bad temper.
Our day pass took us past queues into the Louvre, where Nikki’s aerosol deodorant was confiscated at a security point. The girls just wanted to see the Mona Lisa, then get out of there. For me, the greatest delight was coming across Gericault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ just nearby. I was able to drum up some art history lecture notes from the recesses of my memory, and inspire Nic and Nik to take an interest in it too. It was huge!
It was during a Contiki tour, this. It was our ‘free’ day, I’d hooked up with Nicola from Auckland and Nikki from Melbourne, and we were all in possession of a day pass to selected Parisian sights. Nikki didn’t climbed this high in the bell-tower, being even more irrationally afraid of heights than I am. As we passed out the great doors afterwards, we saw an ancient gypsy-like crone spit on the man in front of us, as he favoured another beggar’s palms to hers. I don’t think she put a curse on us all, but Nicola did suffer from very sore feet later in the day, which brought on a bout of bad temper.
Our day pass took us past queues into the Louvre, where Nikki’s aerosol deodorant was confiscated at a security point. The girls just wanted to see the Mona Lisa, then get out of there. For me, the greatest delight was coming across Gericault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ just nearby. I was able to drum up some art history lecture notes from the recesses of my memory, and inspire Nic and Nik to take an interest in it too. It was huge!
And of course Auckland's Art Gallery has the painting by Steele and Goldie that's heavily influenced by the "Medusa". Unsettlingly so :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's right, and I think I saw that one first... so that when I eventually studied Gericault, I got a sense of deja vu.
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