The Louvre, Bastille Day 2016

After partaking of our pastries, we continued on toward the Louvre - which had free entry for Bastille Day

but the cloud was looking like rain

The sky this way was looking better. Note the people standing on special boxes - placed for photo opportunities?

There were plenty of hawkers in among the queuing crowd selling mostly selfie sticks but as soon as there were spits of rain - out came the umbrellas for sale. We weren't in the queue long enough to be bothered by the rain

Then we were inside - let the wonder begin. When you enter the Pyramid entrance you descend to the lobby and and then you can head back up to the various parts of the museum. The background, behind Barb, features in this next shot.

Pyramid light patterns

Close up of the action guy dealing to a dragon - as seen in this cropped shot below ...

The combination of natural and artificial lighting was well done.

Reflections of people and inanimate objects

Being in a museum can be quite tiring

I would stop and take photographs of images and scenes that caught my eye - which meant at times I would lose sight of where Barb and Jeantine had wandered to next - here they are still in shot.

Then again if you are posing in front of displays, poser and photographer must be in sight of each other.

OK, lets go see how the photo looks on screen

Natural light source for that Near Eastern antiquities display I think this was an area where I got separated from Barb and Jeantine and it took some back tracking on their part to find me.

Objects of interest and explanations

With a crowded public venue, we all must be background in so many photographs. So much to see, and so little time - best we move on, as in this video, to a must see before we leave

Like the Manneken Pis in Brussels, you are struck by how small this object of art is, with a world wide reputation. Such a small object, and such a big drawcard. I wonder how many selfies are taken in an average hour. For a You Tube link to see the Mona Lisa when the room is empty, click here

5pm, time to exit. With limited lift access for those wanting to head up to the outside, I thought I would take the stairs and leave Jeantine to accompany Barb in the lift, which was in high demand. Well I made it outside but it wasn't obvious to me where Barb and Jeantine would emerge so initially I headed toward the street exit / entrance but that wasn't looking promising so back to the Pyramid entry and after looking around I sat down on the edge of the pond feature on one side of the entrance point we had used before. I ended up chatting to a lady after I had tried to contact the others via cell phone. Then my phone rang and Barb had used her NZ sim card and got through to me. It turned out they were on the other side of entrance from where I was.

Bastille Day

With the Bastille Day Parade over, and breakfast consumed twas time to move out but there was an unexpected flurry of activity at the intersection at Montparnasse with the some the military vehicles that been in the Parade were moving through other parts of Paris with applause from the waiting pedestrians

You can see a military jeep in position - behind the motor bikes, on the centre island

For lunch, do we buy some fruit or ...

or pastries

It was quite a process to purchase the pastries, each counter of different varieties, giving you a docket to take to the check out counter to then pay for your collection of loaded paper bags. With lunch delights sorted it was across the road to head through a park

Jardin Du Luxembourg

And zooming in for a little detail of two cell phones, one being used for a selfie.

Now if I can line up my flag in the foreground of the photo

Square du Vert-Galant. Not sure what the guy with the white cart was selling - icecream? Cranes in the background indicate construction of some form. I guess the golden colour is because most of the love padlocks are brass.

Jeantine moving in to get a close up of the love padlocks - which have proved to be a concern through all the extra weight they place on bridges, see this story in The Guardian.

While there is this captive audience, why not hustle for a Euro or two, An interesting thought on this type of activity, from a travel tips article ...
The scam: A group of people will be gathered around a person doing a trick—maybe a card trick or one with the cups and a hidden ball underneath one of them. A few people in the crowd will actually be friends with the magician who will call on a random audience member to guess a card or a cup.
As they're thinking and concentrating one of the members in the crowd will pickpocket them. You may win the coin worth 50 cents but your wallet will be gone.
More on this park from Travel France Online Jeantine and Barb head down the steps while I video the action and the guy doing his hustling with slight of hand can be heard still working the crowd

Time to eat our Patisserie treats

Preparing for Bastille Day

Early in the evening of the 13th Jeantine and I walked around to where Jeantine thought might be the best place to view the fireworks and returned later with Barb. All dressed up to cope with the cold wind blowing and a concrete wall to lean against and low enough to be able sit on top - with a judicious lamp post to be able to lean against. There were people sitting in groups in the grassed road centre divider - some with food and drink to sustain them.

Having sussed out the potential spots to get a good view of the Fireworks for Bastille Day we returned to our apartment. That night might've been when Barb and Jeantine went out to purchase something to eat and came back with Indian cuisine, as they couldn't find anything better at that hour - and it wasn't too great.

The next morning Jeantine and I went out looking for a nice Patisserie for breakfast eats

Looking away from our apartment (mixing old and new - glass and masonry) and back the other way, toward the Montparnasse Tower

Looking across the intersection to our apartment - across from the Montparnasse Tower

And cropping in to show the roof line, 6th floor

And a photo from the upstairs window looking across the intersection toward where the above street level photos were taken.

A French girl on the train from London that we were chatting to, said she had never bothered with the Bastille Day Parade as such - she recommended we just watch it on TV.

The New Zealand Army Haka team as part of the Bastille Day Military Parade