"Then I found myself on a plateau, in a mown lawn: I had the sea ahead of me, it was bright blue, the sun shed over it a profusion of gleaming pearls and furrows of fire ran through the waves: between the azure sky and the darker blue of the sea, the horizon shone in flaming splendour, the vault of the heavens rose over my head and then sank down behind the waves that rose up to meet it as if to close the circle of an invisible infinitude. I lay down in a furrow and gazed at the sky, lost in contemplation of its beauty".
- Gustav Flaubert, November