This is the first story in a four-part series
about the 15th anniversary trip my
artist wife and I took to Paris.


There we stood; waiting in line at the Louvre. I had bought her an annual membership for our anniversary, in part, to avoid this. 

Five minutes earlier we had passed through the member’s entrance at the Louvre. I had flashed my subsidiary membership card, and we breezed through the metal detector.  

Once inside, however, we had to swing by la Société des Amis du Louvre (Friends of the Louvre Society).

The society’s reception office is tucked away across the giant main foyer from the main information desk. 

As soon as we rounded the corner to enter the office, there it was… the line. A line we had to wait in. There was no way to avoid it. 

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