by Emmanuel Fremiet, ca 1897
This was made to top the spire at le Mont Saint-Michel, where only the lines of its gilded wings are visible from the stone stair maze.
"Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more, and float upward in our heedlessness, singing Gratia Dei sum quod sum." (John Updike)