I spent the bulk of 1998 and 1999 living in paris, france. For the first time since 1985 I didn't own a car. I walked, took the bus or rode the Metro and RER practically everywhere. paris (inside the peripherique) is such a compact city – you can walk across it diagonally in only a few hours if you concentrate on the walk. Each little quartier within each arrondisment has it's own character. I've only had the opportunity to return a handful of times since. This image of the entrance to the Louvre through I.M. Pei's glass pyramid was taken in 2007 on a daytrip from Disneyland Paris where my wife and I had taken our children for a few days of entertainment – a vacation from our vacation. Having lived in Paris you get to learn that there's a shopping mall under the plaza and that you can enter the Louvre from that shopping mall. In the heat of the summer and particularly the stifling airlessness of August, the shopping mall is a much more pleasant place to wait in line than the courtyard. It's in most of the guidebooks but relatively few tourists seem to register that detail! Ultimately the Louvre is just too big to be fully enjoyable – a dash to the Mona Lisa and then what? I think I only went inside on two or three occasions. The Musée D'Orsay across the river, with it's collections of paintings by the impressionists, drew my attention far more frequently.
This image was taken on a Canon eos 5D.
