half-brilliant

Updated: July 8, 2026

This roof, which is in itself a sort of castle in the air, has an extravagant, fabulous quality, and with its profuse ornamentation the salamander of Francis I. is a constant motive its lonely pavements, its sunny niches, the balcony that looks down over the closed and grass-grown main entrance, a strange, half-sad, half-brilliant charm. The stonework is covered with fine mould.

Henry James - A Little Tour of France