Mild Mannered Mob

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Camera held high to overcome the crowds in the room containing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre museum.

It took too much jostling to get to the front row so I opted instead for the last row and a view of everyone with raised cameras attempting to capture the most famous piece in the museum.

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The Mona Lisa painting visible over the mass of tourists at the Louvre museum in Paris.

What I imagine is a probably already busy room on normal days, we came on the first Sunday of the month which everyone seemed to be aware is the free entry day into the Louvre. The crowd around the Mona Lisa (or La Joconde as the French call her or La Gioconda as the Italians call her) was nothing short of a mild-mannered mob. We all saved ourselves €10 but at what cost!?!? Luckily I'd seen the Mona Lisa many years ago when summer crowds weren't nearly as bad as this. As a result, I took a back seat this day and let the other tourists box each other out in order to capture their "burden of evidence" photo proving that they did, indeed, see the Mona Lisa up close!