Monday, January 30, 2006 Localizing the Louvre--Getting Behind the Da Vinci Code Paris is a beautiful city. Perhaps the most beautiful in the world. And the Louvre is the pièces de résistance of any trip to the city of lights. But unless you can read and understand French, much of the cultural information displayed in the Musée du Louvre will not do you much good. Now, when the Louvre is guaranteed to become an even more popular travel venue once the new film starring Tom Hanks, the DaVinci Code, comes out, the Louvre administrators should consider making more information readable to non-French speakers. One thing that can be said in general: the Louvre is not a model of efficiency. It was a subzero morning on 1.26.06, snow flurrying in the air, the queue of shivering people a mile long, but the doors did not open at the designated 9AM opening time. The Louvre security detail took their sweet time and did not open the doors until around 9:15. The Louvre personnel did not appear to be too concerned about the people on line that were freezing their butts off--they were inside the warm confines of the museum's famed pyramid. Once the doors did finally open, the automatic ticket machines did not accept any of my three US credit cards. Nor did they want the 50 Euro bill in my wallet (20 Euro was the biggest bill they take). It was to my chagrin that the ATM machine located 100 feet away did not discriminate against my credit card and gave me the 20 Euro in a flash. Having fed the 20 Euro into the machine (after having to stand on line again) the tickets were magically dispensed. Thus far, I was not too impressed with the level of service that the Louvre had to offer. Once inside, however, I forgot about the hassles in a heartbeat. The paintings in the Denon wing (where the Mona Lisa is housed) are magnificent, and no words can describe how the Masters can lift your heart and spirits. But one thing did bother me--all the inscriptions underneath the paintings, ceiling murals, statues etc. were in French only. And while it is true that a picture is worth one-thousand words, many people are interested in the history of the painting, when it was painted, restoration information, etc. It would make sense to have this information in other languages, including English. Having said this, the people at the Louvre have done an excellent job of localizing their website into English (check out http://www.louvre.fr). So why not the painting inscriptions? And as you will see in the following photo, when the Louvre administration wants to get a point across, like don't photograph the Mona Lisa please, it does it in about 10 languages. The Louvre does rent audio tapes in several languages for 5 Euros. In addition, look out for the security guards seated at various points in the halls who are guarding laminated, double-sided A4 pages with information printed in various languages (which must be returned after use). But these, while somewhat helpful, are hardly a satisfactory solution. Some people may find the use of audio tapes to be cumbersome, while also restricting your tour to proceed at the pace someone else sets for you. Many people, like myself, like to roam freely at their own pace. I hope the Louvre administrators read this information and do something about it, but even if they don't, the Louvre is an experience that should not be missed. 10:00:15 AM    comment [] © Copyright 2007 Global Translations.

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