More of Paris

Louvre: Behind the Scenes

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Near the Venus de Milo at the Louvre, you could peek into a courtyard filled with antiquities that weren't ready for prime time. Kind of an funny scene. The statues look like actors in a green room, running through their lines.

Mona Lisa

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Another funny scene. Here is the crowd in front of the Mona Lisa. Fun activity: try to count the number of people actually looking at the painting.

Eiffel Tower after midnight

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The City of Light. That odd white beam is from a rotating searchlight on top of the Tower. That odd metal thing? I don't know what that's all about.

Self-portrait with strobelights

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At the top of every hour, all night, the Eiffel Tower erupts with strobe lights. (The effect is kind of like when a whole stadium full of people are taking flash pictures.) We took this self-portrait at the top of the tower by opening the shutter for 1/4 second and letting the strobes act as flashes. Unfortunately too many went off in a quarter-second so it's a bit blurry.

Eiffel Tower

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Looking straight up from the first level. Allow me to quote travel dork Rick Steves at his least ready for primetime: "The tower is an awesome thing to see at twilight, when it becomes engorged with light and virile Paris lies back and lets night be on top."