Sirharris.com

"It's the most famous painting in the world and a must-see for anyone visiting Paris. But most people fight through the crowds to spend a mere 15 seconds in front of it - just long enough to grab a snapshot. So why do they bother?"

I couldn't resist this news piece from Guardian Unlimited covering the bizarre Mona Lisa syndrome around her entire wing of the Louvre. Having only been to Paris last month both my girlfriend and I noticed long before you even reach the floor housing that painting you are swept up into a procession. The rabble move with quickening pace as they sense close proximity, onward they charge past work after work of sacred depiction, you can attempt to pause to glance to your left or right but ultimately you are blocking those who wish to advance.

"Objectively, this is a very bad tourist experience. At least at the Eiffel Tower, the other highlight of travel-brochure Paris, you get the excitement of the lift and an incredible view. Here you get one small, dark picture surrounded by a jostling crowd of hundreds."

"It is hard to see how anyone can genuinely enjoy looking at the painting in these circumstances, which probably explains why most people don't."

To myself the most interesting was the emptiness apparent in visitors after exiting "her" gallery, they traipse downstairs as if wounded hearts in a funeral procession, perhaps planning what pre-requisite vista they shall next endeavour to stand before, and photograph.

I didn't notice many others not attempting to take a photograph of The Mona Lisa, yet I certainly don't consider myself elite for this choice. I figured few would enjoy my vantage point from behind six lines of people, all with their cameras thrust into the air accidentally taking haphazard snaps of what, dissapointingly, turns out later to be a stranger's head obscuring their piece of artistic history. For me there were much more interesting creations in The Louvre (and even more at the Mussee d'Orsay).

Read the story that started this post in Guardian Unlimited.