Dear Berthe,

I wish you could have seen the new show. Yours!  The first of note since the 1940s.  At least four long rooms – a connected suite.  One side of a vast floor of the Musée d’Orsay. You know, the railway station turned into museum (you would appreciate that they left the station’s big old ironwork clock)..

All the galleries were crowded even though Thursday was a perfect July day. And gloriously sunny.  The trains and Metro were running again, so you could have easily ridden into town from your summer place in Bougival.  (I bet you would have applauded the striking workers last week.)  Even the signage was brilliant.  Not pretentious. Not patronizing. And translated into English for those who don’t know French.  (Though, of course, we both know something is always lost in translation.)  They even remembered how Degas called you the most experimental of your friends.

I wish you could have seen everyone craning, lingering. And not just adults, but children like yours.

I wish you could have joined me.