Les Tullieries 1984.

Une matin gris de printemps.

"Paris, as everyone knows, is pre-eminently a gray city. I mention it because, in the realm of watercolor, American painters use this made-to-order gray excessively and obsessively. In France the range of grays is seemingly infinite; here the very effect of gray is lost."

Henry Miller - OUIET DAYS IN CLICHY

His only quote I recall, but never in entirety.

I do remember back in the 1980s walking out of Le Hotel Des Ecoffes, a classic hotel particular to the Rue de Rivoli in the winter. Sky field gray. Faces morgue gray. My suit flannel gray. The air thick with car and bus exhaust. All diesel. Everywhere a film of gray creeping on a chilly breathe of a wind. Ah, let's not forget the damp.

Then I enter a warm cafe. Run by women. A cafe, laughter, a croissant. The perfect menage a trois.