Sit down and relax. Open your sketchbook, take out a pencil, and sketch any one of the sculptures that surround you. Rest your feet and just absorb the fact that you are sitting in the Musee Rodin. In Paris.

About a century before I started to visit the Rodin Museum, Rodin lived and worked in this house. Every window in the museum had some sort of chair, or a few chairs, sitting in front of it, inviting one to sit down. As if the chairs had just been pushed aside to make room for the sculptures. Sit in one direction and muse out the window. Sit facing inward and contemplate the sculptures.

I like all of the lines in this photograph – the straight lines of the chairs and the shutters, and the lines of the floor. I like the whiteness of the paint, mixed with the combined earthiness and elegance of the real parquet floor. I like that the outside is overexposed and also contributes to the whiteness of things.

The French are really in to sitting for awhile and taking in their environment. Don’t ever hesitate to sit and take a moment to mellow out, to think, to observe where you are. That’s what all the chairs in Paris are for.