Louvre, Versailles, Mont Saint-Michel on strike alert tomorrow

by Alison Brick on

Workers at Paris’ modern art center Pompidou are already on strike over planned job cuts, but those at other French museums and landmarks could join in their fight tomorrow.

Seven unions are threatening to walk off the job on December 2nd if their demands aren’t met by the MInistry of Culture. They’re boycotting the government’s plan to cut cultural positions, which would replace only one out of every two civil servants who retire.

The Pompidou Center is Paris’ second most popular museum. If the cuts move forward, 400 of the museum’s 1,100 jobs could be cut over the next 10 years. More than 40 percent of workers there are 50 years or older.

Other tourist sites potentially shutting down during the strike are Notre Dame, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Pantheon. However, the Eiffel Tower would not be affected.

Travel Bookshelf: free guidebook to “Angels and Demons” Rome

by Sean McLachlan on

Small press guidebook publisher Roaring Forties Press has released a free guidebook in downloadable PDF format titled Rome’s Angels and Demons: The Insider’s Guide to the Locations Featured in the Book and Movie. Author Angela K. Nickerson covers all the sites mentioned in the bestselling book, and then delves into the historical background of the real characters mentioned in the plot, such as Galileo and Raphael, highlighting sites associated with these famous figures that can still be seen today.

Dan Brown fans and visitors to Rome can learn a lot from this book. For example, the Vatican Secret Archives really exist, and they really do contain the files on Galileo’s trial. There are sections on the Swiss Guard, the Pantheon, and much more. The text is livened up with images by accomplished travel photographer Christine Cantera.

Nickerson is the author of another book on Rome (pictured here) titled A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome, part of the ArtPlace series by Roaring Forties Press. The Artplace series are lavishly illustrated books that link a city to a famous resident, and Nickerson’s book examines the life and work of one of Renaissance Italy’s greatest artists. I reviewed that book on my own blog. Other destinations include Normandy, Ireland, the south of France, New York, California, and New England.