Free Entry To Louvre While Guards Strike

by Jonathon Morgan Feb 15th 2007 @ 10:28AM

If there's a country where workers know how to strike, it's France. When truck drivers strike, they position their vehicles across major highways, so no one can travel, and when security guards at the Louvre (the Paris museum that houses the Mona Lisa) take strike action, they block the ticket booths so no one can pay.

In response, the museum waived it's admission fee. Score!

So should you jump on a plane right now to get in for free?

Well, no. For starters, the fee ranges from only $7.87 to $17, and by Wednesday afternoon, the striking guards -- who, incidentally, only made up 5% of the museum's 1,100 security staff -- had relinquished their hold on the ticket booth.

Semi-related jaw-dropping fact: the Louvre registered 8.3 million visitors last year alone. No word on how much the museum lost by temporarily allowing free admission.

Filed under: France

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1

Feb 21st 2007 @ 5:12PM

Oana said...

This happened for my first visit to the Louvre in 1998 too! It was an excellent boon to my limited travel budget, but unfortunately it also meant that many galleries were closed due to ... you guessed it, lack of staff.

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Free Entry To Louvre While Guards Strike