A little on Paris!

From the first corner turned, walking toward the Metro, a one-way street filled with traffic, rushing up the hill in organized chaos, fast & furious on their way to work or school & jammed at the five-way crossroads at the top, in the ninth arrondissement. Ceaseless cars, (not even pausing at the pedestrian crossing where people dared to cross,) piled up, impatient & gathered again, turning into the narrow side streets. Coffee bars were open early accommodating the usual gossiping locals, sipping their coffee in the early warmth of the Paris spring. Boulevards & roads buzzed with early morning traffic in monotonous activity as the sun rose, filling the air with captivating sunshine, light emitting a radiance that softly beamed all over the city, throughout the parks & gardens glistening like sprinkled jewels on the Seine, flowing swiftly under the Pont Neuf.
In the Metro under Paris, people hurried down passages, keeping to the right, while others proceeded at the same pace, in the opposite direction, feeding small tickets into machines that spat them out again, then at the sorties, crashed through the opening barriers. Trains tunneled around Paris in quick succession, while the roads above fed the constant traffic, people from apartments & hotels slowly spilling into the system, then going their separate ways.
The next day was a warm Sunday in the Tuileries Garden, people promenaded the paths amongst the tulips, hyacinths & daffodils. Families with small children gathered at the large pond, their children poking long sticks at wooden sailing boats with coloured sails, sending them to & fro across the water. In a breeze, the boats would heel over, dipping their sails in the water, but remaining upright & sturdy.
The Seine flowed swiftly through Paris, carrying tourists on the Bateaux Mouches under the Pont Neuf & other bridges, close to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Rive Gauche & the Louvre. The Pont Neuf being the oldest bridge in Paris & the first stone was laid by Henry III, son of Henry II 1578, in the presence of Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother. Its design marking the end of the Middle Ages, the bridge linking the Louvre, the Abbaye de Saint-Germain with the Left Bank, (Rive Gauche.)
The Louvre was busy with people, Leonardo's Mona Lisa attracting much attention, while in another large room, Raphael's beautiful lady in a red velvet dress, went almost unnoticed. The face delicate, the skin tones exquisite, her complexion radiated from the artist's brush as she peered demurely with an enchanting elegance, from the painting. Her clothing was perfection & refined in all its richness of texture, gentle folds of velvet & silk capitulating the era of her life & social standing leaving nothing to be desired from Raphael's skillful brushstrokes, capturing the very grace & elegance of youth. His portrait of Dona Isabel de Requesens painted in 1518, will be remembered & quite possibly revisited.
Paintings by Rembrandt elsewhere, were sometimes dark & foreboding with subtle enhancement of light, giving the paintings a warmth & careful colour variation that perfected his individual style.  
The Louvre's original Palace of Kings & accompanying court witnessed lavishly decorated rooms with a rich architectural style of the period. Its vastness almost enfolds a newer pyramid  of glass architecture in complete contrast to the original building.
In an archway toward one end of the Louvre near the river, a lone female busker played Brahms with exquisite beauty on her violin, the notes blown around in the briskness of a breeze, the violinist getting almost blown sideways. She battled with it for a time, then the music was carried across to the Seine, where a  bateau mouche  moved with quiet stealth up the river & under the bridges of Paris. The violinist's  positive playing was given to the breeze & the instrument was carefully packed away. The moment had ended.
The Basilica of Sacre Coer stands high on a hill overlooking the city & beyond at the back, a few streets away was the Place du Tertre, a place once the mecca of modern art, where Picasso & Utrillo were living. The square, popular with artists on a daily basis & tourists alike, is surrounded by cafes & restaurants. The Lapin Agile, (Nimble Rabbit), at the turn of the 20th century, was a favorite place for struggling artists & writers (such as the aforementioned artists) & lies down a sloping hill from the Place du Tertre.

The Champs Elysee is a main street, one of many leading from Etoile, where the cars hurtle around, vaguely keeping in some form of order, & is wide where the Tour du France ends each July. It has trees lining the roadside which, in early spring do not bear leaves, but always popular with shoppers & where restaurants spill onto the pavement.

A short 20kms train ride away is the Palace of Versailles with abundant gardens where music filters through the trees on the edge of the pathways. The gardens are beautifully laid out, but the court of Versailles was the center of political power before the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 & the palace was a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy. The rooms seem endless & each one is more than lavishly decorated with magnificent fabrics, china, & furniture, amongst paintings & architecture that is ornate & sumptuous to say the least. 
The Sorbonne is on the Rive Gauche (left bank), where students attend the university. The Musee d'Orsay, (an ex railway station}, also on the left bank of the Seine, where construction started 1897, is now an important art gallery, home to French Impressionist paintings & post-impressionist masterpieces by highly-acclaimed painters such as Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Delacroix & Gauguin.
Paris in the spring, or any time for that matter, is a feast of art in particular, having many galleries.  Shopping is no exception, where the architecture designed by Georges Chedanne & pupil created of a glass & steel dome above the center of Galeries Lafayette, situated on the Boulevard Haussmann, an up-market department store.  It is impressive, even for the non-shopper, & richly decorated, with the Art Nouveau staircases finished in 1912.

Paris will always be Paris & appeals to different people in its own unique way. It has an 'atmosphere' that remains with the visitor & somehow being there, remains within & has to be repeated at another time in the future for whatever reason.