Capturing the moment

Since my last entry, I spent my day at the Musee Louvre. I arrived around noon and didn't leave until its closing five hours later. With no one to pull me away from the pieces of art that fill the exquisite structure, which was erected as a castle outside of Medieval Paris as protection, I dwelled over every beauty with my favorite companion, the audio guide.

The Louvre... a beautiful castle filled with glorious works of art

My listening tour began underground in the moat that surrounded the old castle, leading me through the so-called masterpieces and stopping at great works along the way. There's so much to be said about the contents of the louvre, including the people who spend time there. Tourists filled every space of the gran place, snapping picture after picture. It was interesting to watch them step in front of one work to the next, getting their picture and moving on, and I wondered if they would look back at their photos having even remembered them at all. Note to the world, when you are capturing, or trying to capture a historically renowned image, TURN OFF YOUR FLASH. I cringed at the lights as they slowly damaged the works of art and added to the collection of what in my mind become lost moments for the enthused tourists. Not to say I didn't capture a couple here and there... I understand the excitement that causes one to want to preserve every overwhelming feeling of artistic brilliance, but sometimes you have to forgo the postcard to retain the memory.

Me and Mona Lisa!

I experienced such enlightenment later that night, as I rode on the Batobus down the Seine and watched the river glisten under the Eifel tower. As the lights shone on the tower and flickered in the water, I was sad at first not to have my camera and instead a dead battery on my phone. But it didn't take long for my mind to change, as I looked around at the picture-takers and thinking back to visitors at the Louvre. Looking through a screen, my memory of the Tour d'Eifel would be much different, because no matter how many times I would look back at that image, I could never get those moments when I was taking in all the beauty back again. I realized that when a moment passes, it's passed, no matter how well you've captured it. So I hummed a soundtrack to my view of the Seine from the balcony of my tourbus, trying (and failing) to match the beauty to my French-ish tune, but it surpassed me. They say Paris at night is a whole different experience, and it's true. From the people sitting along the Seine, drinking wine and having conversation, to the sparkles of light, everything feels calm and alive all at once. Everything feels beautiful.

So I captured the moment in the best way there is, by just being in it.