Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Disappointed tourists poked their heads through the Louvre’s locked gates on Saturday, shut off from the Mona Lisa as galleries and museums across Paris closed as a precaution ahead of fresh demonstrations.
“When we came, we thought there could be a problem but not that the museum would be closed,” Italian social educator Selena Bertoni, 31, said in front of the Musée d’Orsay.
On a four-day trip to Paris she had paid €50 ($56) for two tickets to see its Impressionist paintings and other masterpieces. “Bad timing,” she said, with a shrug.
The closures came one week after nationwide demonstrations over the cost of living and deteriorating public services descended into some of the worst street violence that France has seen in years.
The violence and damage prompted the government to impose localised curfews and close many public venues ahead of demonstrations planned on Saturday.
The shutdown extended across much of the capital’s cultural sector, including the Orangerie, Jeu de Paume and Picasso museums, while the entire Tuileries Gardens complex that leads out of the Louvre was sealed off.
“This is the third museum we have come to that is closed. They should’ve warned us,” French visitor Heidi Rosar, 21, said.
