Une soirée au Pré Catelan by Henri Gervex

Today was my first time seeing this painting.

Look at the gracefulness and beauty!  Gervex admirably added SUCH DETAIL!  Below is a close-up of the second window, from the right.  I'm as breath-taken as she seems to be.

I wanted to learn more about this heavenly place.  
     Most Americans will naturally assume that such a building (apparently from the mid-1800s) is long gone.  Disappeared.  Demolished.  But, I'm not the average American.  I googled the restaurant, and l0' and behold, it still exists.  Hooray!  I can now add it to my To-Do list.

Next, you might suspect that was renovated to the point of being unrecognizable--as many Americas cheaply do: taking down ornamental architecture and covering it with vinyl siding.  Not the French!  They tenaciously preserve their gorgeous history.  See the building, below; it looks unchanged.

Next, you might fear that the interior was modernized or cheaply redecorated (after the an uncaring era of the 1970s).  Below, see how the restaurant remains as glamorous and elegant as when Victorian-era clientele alighted from carriages at its entrance.  Voila!

Sadly, in America, you might look at a century-old painting and wonder if the scene still exists today.  In many cases, it has been bulldozed over.  But, in France, a way of living is upheld.  
     If you think about it, a country that maintains ways of producing cheese--for hundreds of years

--will also care about its "living history" for more generations to enjoy.