"no sun yet, but a bright rain-grey light, silver and cut steel and pearl on the grey roofs and walls"

"Everything was glittering when they stepped out [of Notre Dame de la Victoire] into the square; no sun yet, but a bright rain-grey light, silver and cut steel and pearl on the grey roofs and walls.  Long veils of smoky fog were caught in the pine forests across the river.  And how fresh the air smelled!"

     Willa Cather, Shadows on the rock (1931) II.iii =Library of American edition, p. 508, a novel of Catholic Quebec set in 1697-1698.  This admittedly 21st-century image of Notre Dame de la Victoire captures almost perfectly the picture these lovely words painted in my mind.