As I said yesterday, there's often a long line of people waiting to get into the Louvre. I guess that's not surprising. In this first photo, the plaza around the Pyramide doesn't look very crowded.
But going around to the other side, you see all the people waiting to go down into the entrance foyer under the Pyramide. If you buy a museum pass that gives you access to many museums across Paris, you evidently get to bypass the long ticket lines.
Yesterday, too, I mentioned what the big open courtyard of the Louvre was like before the Pyramide was built. It was a parking lot. You can see it in the aerial photo below, which I found on the web but which is not dated.
Below are three more photos that I took on the afternoon of July 26.
On the local front, we learned a couple of days ago that another one of our neighbors has passed away, this one at age 71. He was the man who had multiple sclerosis and had become a shut-in. He fell at home several times last winter and people who were his care-givers called on us to come help get him up off the floor. It was a sad case. Two of the late neighbor's daughters are here right now. They say they plan to keep the house for the time being, but don't plan to live here year-round. So there will be another basically empty house in the hamlet — that makes five empty houses and four that are lived in.
I hope you offered that angel a light...
ReplyDeleteI wondered why there was a sarbacane in the angel's mouth.
ReplyDeleteVery sad about the neighbor who had MS!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of your neighbours death,what a sad life he must have had coping with illness and loss of independence.On a lighter note,my daughter gave me a tip on my last trip to Paris,to access the Louvre shopping centre,it's best to enter from the road outside,I think the Carousel de Louvre it's called.No lines of people ever,not sure if you can enter the museum this way,but you do not have to Q to get into the shops!
ReplyDeleteOh, my. So sad to learn of your neighbor's death. What a struggle he and his family must have had.
ReplyDeleteRick Steves has suggested the Carousel entrance to access the Louvre in his books, tv show and lectures for an easy entrance if one doesn't purchase the museum pass.
ReplyDeleteThat aerial view really shows off the parterres. Lovely.
Too bad about your neighbor and the empty homes now in your hamlet.
What a nice way to describe a neighborhood. I might have to try it to describe where I live and watch the reactions! I wouldn't say there are many hamlets in America!!!
Mary, here's the definition of un hameau or 'a hamlet': Groupe d'habitations rurales situées à l'écart d'un village et administrativement rattachées à une commune.
ReplyDeleteSo a hamlet is a settlement or small community that is near, but separate from, a village, and administratively a part of the commune or 'township' that is centered on the village, which is often referred to as le bourg. A village has a church but a hamlet does not. Often, the hamlet grew up around a farm and is named after the family that lived on and worked the farm. Our hamlet consists of nine houses and has no businesses.
Ken: I had to look the word up, but now I know she has a peashooter in her mouth I know why -- pigeons, for sure.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I know the word because the singer/songwriter Francis Cabrel wrote and recorded a song/album called Sarbacane. If this link works, you can play it here.
ReplyDeleteOn croyait savoir tout sur l'amour
ReplyDeleteDepuis toujours,
Nos corps par coeur et nos coeurs
Au chaud dans le velours.
Et puis te voilà bout de femme,
Comme soufflée d'une sarbacane.
Le ciel a même un autre éclat
Depuis toi.
Les hommes poursuivent ce temps
Qui court depuis toujours,
Voilà que t'arrives
Et que tout s'éclaire sur mon parcours,
Pendue à mon cou comme une liane,
Comme le roseau de la sarbacane.
Le ciel s'est ouvert par endroits,
Depuis toi.
Pas besoin de phrases ni de longs discours,
Ça change tout dedans, ça change tout autour.
Finis les matins paupières en panne,
Lourdes comme des bouteilles de butane,
J'ai presque plus ma tête à moi,
Depuis toi.
Pas besoin de faire de trop longs discours,
Ça change tout dedans, ça change tout autour,
Pourvu que jamais tu ne t'éloignes,
Plus loin qu'un jet de sarbacane,
J'ai presque plus ma tête à moi,
Depuis toi.
Alors te voilà bout de femme,
Comme soufflée d'une sarbacane.
Le ciel s'est ouvert par endroits,
Depuis toi.
Oh depuis toi...
i'm sorry to hear about our neighbor. i know it was a concern. ...and i laughed at the cigarette smoking angel also.
ReplyDeleteThis aerial photo was taken after 1954, after the Gambetta Monument was dismantled.
ReplyDelete