Horsemen of the Tuileries

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Dear Wife snapped this shot this morning using her NEW CAMERA. Clear skies herald the new chill--and quite a chill, too. Nothing like the warm days we used to expect. As we hustled through the Tuilerie Gardens on our way to meet Kindly Kev at his hotel (just off the rue de Rivoli), we came across this trio of mounted Gendarmes. A real sight. Funny to think of Manet's Jardin du Tuileries painting coming from this same garden, (which is much smaller than I expected--the painting, not the garden, though that's small, too, in a way--the painting feels big, but is only 30"X46"--I just checked). The two scenes, Manet's and this morning's horsemen, are so opposite, but now, in 2005, the sight of either brings up the same sort of nostalgia for a "lost" Paris of yester-year.

But not the Occupation years. Everyone agrees those were crappy, and nobody wants them back.