MOMENTS OF INSPIRATION and JOY in FRANCE and ITALY

                                        A newly-restored Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, May

                                                                By Margaret S. Hamilton

Our recent trip started in Paris and ended in Florence. We visited art museums, churches, and gardens, and enjoyed memorable meals. The photos reflect moments of joy we found on our travels.

From Matisse's Jazz collection of cut paper collages. We saw the Matisse 1941-1954 exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Renoir, Dance at Bougival, on display in Paris at the Renoir in Love exhibit at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Saint-Chapelle, the gothic "jewel box of Europe" was built in 1248 in Paris.

                                            The Conciergerie Clock, the oldest in Paris, 1370.

La Maison de Verlaine restaurant on the Left Bank, where Verlaine lived and in 1922-23, Hemingway and his young family.

Lunch in the Jardin de Luxembourg on May Day, a national holiday. Everything was closed, so visitors and residents alike took advantage of a glorious early summer day.

                                                            A dog bar in Aix-en-Provence.

                                    The rose garden at the Pavillon de Vendome, Aix-en-Provence

A painting of Chagall's Paris Opera Garnier frescoes at the Chagall Museum in Nice. The frescoes pay homage to fourteen major composers.

                         Renoir's studio in his country home in Carnes-sur-Mer, near Nice.

                            The Chapel du Rosaire de Vence, designed by Matisse in 1951.

                                                A market town near Grasse, southern France.

                            Gardens at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France

A statue of Boccherini in his hometown of Lucca, Italy, home of a music conservatory.

Our hotel room in the Oltrarno district of Florence overlooking a private garden. Instead of traffic noise, we woke to birdsong every morning.

The trap door to Michelangelo's hiden room in the Medici Chapels in Florence. In 1530, Michelangelo was wanted by the Medici Pope Clement VII. He spent two months in hiding, leaving charcoal sketches of future works on the walls of his hidey-hole.  Reservations for the actual room are restricted.

An actor declaiming Dante's Inferno in the medieval town of San Gimignano, Italy.

The Basilica of St Mary of the Angels is built around the Porziuncola, the 9th century little church where St Francis renounced the world and founded the Franciscan order.

Fra'Angelico, Annunciation fresco, in the Convent of San Marco, Florence, 1443.

The Giardino Delle Rose is a public rose garden high on a hill overlooking Florence. Instead of a steady stream of tourists, vistors strolled the many levels on the garden and ate picnic lunches on the grass. A welcome refuge in a city filled with tourists.

Readers and writers, have you discovered inspiration and joy in your travels?

St Paul de Vence, France

Margaret S. Hamilton has published forty short stories and has two novels on submission.

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