Rue de Rivoli

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This is the rue de Rivoli, an extremely long, straight street (by Paris standards), that runs parallel to the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre Museum. 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 as an improvised dragstrip by motorcyclists in the wee hours of the morning (this is strictly illegal, of course, but Parisian motorcyclists do not feel that the motor vehicle code applies to them). The facades of the buildings are all the same, and in this relatively wide-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 Tuileries Gardens in the foreground, and the northern portion of the Louvre behind it, further on down the street. The Ferris wheel in the distance in front of the Louvre is part of a small travelling fair that stations itself in the Tuileries gardens twice a year, once in summer and once around the New Year.

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

Photographed on July 12, 1999.