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.