.gvfs/ ?????

Doing as root a "ls -al", I get an error message 

"ls: cannot access .gvfs: Permission denied"

and get a listing:

d?????????   ? ?    ?           ?                ? .gvfs/

What is this strange thing, which has no permissions, and which root does not 
have access to ?
 
Cheers,
 
Ron.
-- 
                         Those who hear not the music
                         must think the dancers mad.
                                    
                   -- http://www.olgiati-in-paraguay.org --