Hotel Tour Eiffel, Rue de la Exposition, Paris, 6th April 1988
Metro from Bosquet – Grenelle to Palais Royal Musée du Louvre, heading for the Louvre, which is what half the visitors to Paris seemed to be doing. Join a winding queue shuffling slowly forward for an hour in the chilly April air. Crowded inside with rowdy parties surging forward. No need to ask where the Mona Lisa is: just follow the flock of pilgrims heading for the secular icon. It’s smaller that everyone expects and loses any sense of mystery and enigma before a chaotic press of people chattering and flashing with cameras, yet it still elicits obligatory ‘Oos’ and ‘Aahs’. Tutors try to talk to gaggles of students, whose attention is wandering after ticking La Giaconda off their must see list. I find it becoming an exercise in people watching not art appreciation. Outside in the Cour Napoleon work on I M Pei’s glass pyramid for the new entrance is progressing well.