Locked in the Loo at the Louvre

In 2013 when Jesse and Mindy asked me if I wanted to go to Paris and London with them I was elated, excited and scared, in that order. Elated because they thought I’d make a good travel companion, excited because I would finally see in person sights that, until then, I’d only read about, and scared because it would be my first international European land vacation.

Of course one of the “must-do” experiences on our list was a visit to the Louvre.  There was no way we were going to miss out on seeing the Mona Lisa!  Before we entered the Louvre we had fun taking pictures in front of the entrance.

As we walked around the museum Mindy began to limp.  We always go hard when we travel. We’re up early in the morning and we’re out on excursions and sightseeing trips until late at night. If, at the end of the day, we haven’t put 30,000 to 40,000 steps on our Fitbits we consider it a slow day. Unfortunately, Mindy is prone to getting blisters.

When we reached the part of the museum that housed the Egyptian antiquities Mindy had to sit down. Jesse stayed with her while I went up ahead to look around. As I was walking around I spied something I hadn’t seen in our entire time in Paris. There in front of me was a public ladies’ room with no line in front of it!

I could not believe my good luck. It was a small restroom with just a single toilet and a sink. I slid the bolt into the lock and did what I had to do. After I had washed my hands I went to unlock the door so that I could rejoin Jesse and Mindy. The bolt jammed!

I was locked in the loo at the Louvre!

I started shaking the door trying to loosen the bolt. After a few minutes of frantic shaking, I heard a woman’s voice on the other side of the door. “ Are you locked in?”, she called.  I had to admit I was and she promised to get help. As she left, I continued to try to shake the bolt loose and finally loosened it enough that I could unlock the door. Red-faced and embarrassed I hurried away before she came back with museum staff, prepared to take the door off the hinges, to rescue the stupid American who managed to lock herself in the bathroom.

I found Jesse and Mindy where I had left them. They were about to go looking for me because I had been gone so long. I told them what had happened and they thought it was quite funny. At the time I was too embarrassed and flustered to see the humor in it, although I laugh about it now. I just wanted to get away from that part of the museum, so we started walking away to find the Mona Lisa.

This was in August 2013. In April of that year, the museum staff had gone on strike because of the prevalence of pickpockets at the Louvre. There were signs at the museum in a variety of languages warning people about pickpockets. As Jesse and Mindy worked their way forward in the crowd around the Mona Lisa I hung back to watch that no pickpockets targeted them,

While I did not see anyone get their pockets picked, I did see a couple that I suspected could be working as a team. The couple consisted of a young woman and a man in their early 20’s. The young woman was wearing a backless yellow blouse that slid down her left shoulder and exposed her left breast every time she raised her right hand to take pictures of the Mona Lisa over the heads of the crowd.

She seemed totally oblivious that she was thus exposed.  Perhaps she truly was completely unaware that this was happening. Perhaps she was aware and was an exhibitionist. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was creating a diversion for anyone who took their eyes off the Mona Lisa so her young man could pick their pockets.

Overall we had a lovely day at the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, I managed to get out of the bathroom. and we didn’t get our pockets picked. Most importantly, after we left the Louvre we went shopping and bought Mindy a new pair of sneakers!