Rick. Don't hate me - but are you sure about the "e" on L'Institut(e)? It somehow conflates two languages - we would say "The French Institute" but I believe...
(Oh, shut up, Annie)
The whole thing has a sort of double-take effect. My first impression was "stripes"; then I opened and closed my eyes and saw that the stripes are superimposed almost arbitrarily on the junctions between the river and the sky, the river and the rest of Paris. It pleased me that, with a small leap of imagination, I can see my own toes in the foreground because I understand where I am in relation to the vista. I see what you saw, but once my toes have notionally appeared in the picture, I can play with it in my head, pick at the right-hand edge of the building and peel it slowly leftwards, leaving the sky to drip into the river, the river to rise to meet it. Then, as I slowly lay the edifice back on, I see that my interference made a wound and that I am healing it with red-brown scab. I can do it again and again - breathe in, breathe out; now you see it, now you don't. It makes me happy.
Forgive me, Rick; I should not fantasise about that which I do not understand. (But I think I'm right about the "e").
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