Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

The Musee d'Orsay is housed in a beautiful old train station that almost upstages the artworks within in elegance and beauty. On a recent trip, the gallery outdid itself. As I was looking past the ornate archway to the enormous clock at the museum's far end, the clouds outside broke, and a brilliant shaft of sunlight burst through the clock face, turning everything in its path into a glowing silhouette. Illuminated from the outside, even other tourists took on the delicate quality of a piece of artwork, outlined by the light just as the museum's paintings are framed on its walls. The sudden burst of light reminded me that there is an aesthetic quality worth observing in all things, even tourists, if we are just patient enough to spend the time looking for it.