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| Well, let's see if the random numbers give us something other than food today. Ah, here we go, from The Guardian—and it's not about food, unless you mean "for the eyes." ‘We won’t come again’: dazed visitors fed up with overcrowded Louvre  Paris attraction in need of overhaul amid complaints of leaks, long waits, lack of signage – and too many people Regular readers might remember that, as detailed in my previous blog, I spent a few days in Paris in a hotel just a few blocks from the Louvre. I walked through its gardens and listened to buskers, unironically complained about tourists (in my head, anyway), and decided not to go inside because I had a bum knee and heard it was crowded. It was only after I'd been back for a while that this article came out. As the crowds poured out of the Louvre, the look of dazed exhaustion on many faces confirmed what the museum’s director had warned last week: a trip to Paris’s biggest cultural attraction has become a “physical ordeal”. A part of me has been kicking myself ever since (with the foot attached to the non-shaky knee). I mean, it's the Louvre, the most famous art museum in the fucking world. I'm not a huge art snob or anything, but I know the difference between a painting and a sculpture. I had a chance! I blew it! Then this came along and made me feel better about my decision. Myriam, 65, a former secondary school science teacher had driven from Belgium with her husband to show their 12-year-old granddaughter the Mona Lisa. They left disappointed. From what I hear, everyone's disappointed by that puppy. Smaller than you expect, and you gotta fight crowds. Pretty sure I mentioned that at the time. They had squeezed through huge crowds on Monday to try to catch a glimpse of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, but found the room badly designed and with no proper flow of people. So I understand where they're coming from, but it's the Louvre, not Eurodisney. “There are so many people. Lots of rooms aren’t numbered. The staff are very friendly, but you feel they’re more there to show people the way than to protect the paintings,” said Myriam. Friendly staff? In a Paris museum? Now I want to go back just to see the unicorn. As the article notes, they're from Belgium, so it's likely they speak fluent French. I do not, though I can read the written language fairly well. It may just be Anglophone tourists that get the grumpy-Parisian treatment. On Tuesday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will deliver a speech at the Louvre in which he is expected to unveil details of new investment, which could involve major overhaul – even a potential additional entrance. This article is, as I noted, from a couple of months ago. Since then, other issues may have become more pressing priorities for the French government. Another visitor, this one from actual Paris, gets quoted: “The noise is so unbearable under the glass pyramid; it’s like a public swimming pool. Even with a timed ticket, there’s an hour to wait outside. I can’t do it anymore. Museums are supposed to be fun, but it’s no fun anymore. There’s no pleasure in coming here anymore. And to get out you’re made to walk the length of a shopping arcade to force people to buy things – commercial interests have taken over everything.” From what I've seen, that's pretty standard these days. Hell, when I was leaving the airport there, the signage, in several languages, directed exiting passengers along a winding path through the shinies shop. There was, at least for arriving passengers, no other way out. American consumerism is bad enough, but I think we learned it from France. The Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, warned in a damning note to the culture minister this month that the facilities were below international standards, the visits were not easy and involved long waits, and the building was in poor repair, including leaks and poor temperature controls. Annoying as "leaks and poor temperature controls" are for human visitors and tourists, they're even worse for the art. I did find this piece from CBS dated after Macron's speech. It looks like France can still walk and chew gum at the same time, as it seems they're planning some renovations. And yet, as the CBS article notes, they're funding this by raising admission prices for tourists.Well, shit, all they had to do was raise prices to begin with, and then they'd have smaller crowds. Duh. |
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