To See or Not to See

Posted on April 11, 2022 by Mama Cormier

…..at what cost would you see the Mona Lisa?

We’ve all seen pictures, videos and documentaries of the Mona Lisa. You may have read books about that mysterious smile or where the art piece itself is central to the storyline.

I’ve heard over and over again how small the painting is in real life and yet when I actually saw it I felt it was larger than I had imagined. Was it worth the long line-ups, the crowds and the close proximity to so many people during a pandemic?

I am not sorry that I saw her up close, well at least as close as you are allowed to be. I stood in line with our son but my husband didn’t. He saw the painting from the back of the room. What I am sorry for is all the art that I didn’t get to see or spend time with, as we hurried along the u-shaped galleries to get to the room where the Mona Lisa hung. I knew we were getting closer when the crowds got denser.

There is so much to see at the Louvre that you need more than one 90 minute slot. We were there at the end of the day and leaving Paris the next morning. Here are a few other art pieces that we managed to see.

Friendly Friday Photo Challenge – Tourism

Posted on August 24, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Snow from The Snow Melts Somewhere for this week’s Friendly Friday Photo Challenge

I know that tourism is good for the economy and that many communities around the world rely heavily on tourism. When possible we try to travel in the off season to avoid large crowds. There are times, however, when that is not possible. One time was the summer our son got married in Italy.

I loved Italy but we did avoid some areas because of the heavy foot traffic from tourists. Most of the places we visited were very popular and the crowds were unavoidable. Two of those places were Venice and Rome. Despite the large number of tourists, we thoroughly enjoyed both cities.