I arrived two weeks ago to The City of Lights, Paris, for holidays with the family and some time off. It's always great to visit here enjoying the great architecture and the arrogance of Parisians! I know, I can be mean sometimes. Joking aside, the is quite a strange country, there are so many great things and so many strange behaviors too. Here is an example:
Last week I went to the top of Arc de Triomphe, as I paid the €9.50 ticket at the ground level, I discovered to my surprise that cameras were allowed, but not tripods! Even stranger, at the top of the monument, there are two security employees watching people and preventing anyone from using a tripod! That means two salaries paid for preventing people from using a tripod at a national monument, visited every year by over 1 million people! What an efficient use of taxpayers money.
I did ask why this restriction of tripods, and I got the following stupid answer "To prevent potential terrorists from doing reconnaissance". Seriously? A terrorist would need a tripod to do reconnaissance? There are Google Maps, Google Street View, millions of pictures on the web of that location, not to mention that visitors (and potential terrorists!?) still have the right to use their cameras, yet a tripod is the critical element here? Oh well, France and its stupidity.
Well, if you're wondering why I needed a tripod so badly, it's simply because I wanted to snapshot a 180° panorama, which I managed to do without a tripod, but it wasn't simple. Here are the pictures:
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| Paris view from Arc de Triomphe (Facing East) |
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| Paris view from Arc de Triomphe (Facing West) |
