The Louvre and Smoked Meat

Yesterday we went to the Louvre. It was an overwhelming experience. The building itself was crowded around the “famous” pieces. But there were entire galleries that were deserted.

The behavior of the crowd was terrible. We witnessed a tour group run at full speed through the galleries. Also, tourists don’t seem to understand that it is not good for the paintings to be exposed to camera flash. We saw some American tourists take 5 or 6 photographs (with flash) of Vermeer’s masterpiece – the Lacemaker. First off, there are only 35 or 36 existing Vermeers. There is only one Lacemaker. Why in the world would you want to ruin these for future generations, when you can get an awesome picture off of www.louvre.fr ?

After our museum outing, we went out with Tracey’s friend from Boucheron. We went to a Portugese restaurant, and the food was very good. In particular, I liked the cured smoked meats. Which is one thing that Europe has over America. The FDA does not allow any “real” smoked or cured meats into the US. In fact, in the US you even have to be worried that the meat flavor comes from a smoky chemical, and not from smoke.

I’ve been trying to eat as much of the smoked meats as possible. The picture above is some smoked meat at the Monoprix. Notice the automated pricing tags…much more efficient than hiring an army of union workers to change prices all day long!