In Paris, Museum Visitors Are Spared From Strikes on Sunday

PARIS — Tourists take note: if you're planning to spend the holidays in France this year, you'll want to make sure your favorite museums are actually open before spending on Metro fare to reach your cultural destination.

Workers at many of the top museums in Paris were on strike this week, prompting numerous closures - at least periodically. Throughout the week, visitors arrived at major art institutions like the Louvre  museum and Musee d'Orsay, only to find picketing workers and locked doors covered with posters reading "grève" ("strike"). But to avoid angering the public even more, most museums were open today to honor their usual offer of free admission on the first Sunday of every month. The Pompidou Center was the exception, remaining closed for the fourteenth day in a row.

The strikes were initiated by unions representing culture ministry workers protesting government plans to trim the civil service by replacing only half of all retiring employees. France's Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand has refused to back down, making closures likely to resume next week.

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Read More - Most Paris Museums Open, Strikers Consider Options | Reuters

[Photo: Visitors at the Pompidou Center find the doors locked due to a strike. Courtesy Charles Platiau/Reuters.]

In Paris, Museum Visitors Are Spared From Strikes on Sunday

The Louvre Will Offer Mona Lisa...and McDonald's? Sacre Bleu!

A McDonald's at the prestigious Louvre Museum? Oh Mon Dieu! The impending construction is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of refined Parisian palates. But since fast food restaurants are practically all over the place, it was likely only a matter of time before Mona Lisa met Ronald McDonald.

PARIS /NPR/ -- French culture and American convenience will come together in Paris soon: McDonald's plans to open a restaurant in the forecourt of the Louvre art museum in December. But the idea is meeting with sharp criticism from the French art community.

With its vaulted ceilings and polished, granite walls, the upscale shopping mall beneath the museum — known as Le Carrousel du Louvre — has the same I.M. Pei architecture as the museum. The mall almost feels like an extension of the Louvre itself, and that's partially why the idea of a McDonald's there is ruffling feathers.

Officials from the Louvre are assuring critics that a quality McCafe will be positioned in the underground approach to its entrance. The restaurant will represent the American segment of a new food court featuring world cuisines and coffee shops.

France is McDonald's biggest market after the United States, but many in France see the fast-food chain as the Trojan horse of globalization and the scourge of the traditional French meal.

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[Read More - Big Macs to Join Mona Lisa at the Louvre | NPR]

The Louvre Will Offer Mona Lisa...and McDonald's? Sacre Bleu!