Rue de Rivoli

     RueDeRivoli             

This is the rue de Rivoli, an extremely long, straight street (by Paris standards), thatruns parallel to the Tuileries Gardens and the LouvreMuseum. It is notable for the very vast number of souvenir shops it contains that cater to tourists. Because it is arrow-straight for a good two kilometres or so, it is often used asan improvised dragstrip by motorcyclists in the wee hours of the morning (this is strictlyillegal, of course, but Parisian motorcyclists do not feel that the motor vehicle code appliesto them). The facades of the buildings are all the same, and in this relativelywide-angle shot, one has the impression that the buildings (and the tourist shops they contain)extend almost into infinity. Hmm.

On the right-hand side of the photograph, you can see the northern side of the TuileriesGardens in the foreground, and the northern portion of the Louvre behind it, furtheron down the street. The Ferris wheel in the distance in front of the Louvre is part of a smalltravelling fair that stations itself in the Tuileries gardens twice a year, once in summer and oncearound the New Year.

I have a photograph of the touristy sidewalk running down thisstreet beneath the arches on the left, too, if you are interested.

Photographed on July 12, 1999.