RSS
Home
Plans for Louvre McDonald's angers French
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
This is not an official artist's rendition of what the Louvre will look like once a new McDonald's restaurant opens there. PHOTO: Dennis D. Jacobs
Oakbrook-based McDonald’s plans to open a new McCafé next month in the Carrousel du Louvre, the Paris underground shopping mall connected to the world’s most famous art museum.
The announcement has caused outrage among some French citizens, including museum employees, some of whom are still upset that a Starbucks opened last year near the museum entrance.
“This is the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy, and very unpleasant odors,” one anonymous employee told London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “Starbucks was bad enough, but McDonald’s is worse.”
Carrousel du Louvre opened in 1993, with the stipulation that businesses operating in it would be “restricted to cultural or tourist activities.”
The Louvre can object to enterprises that do not seem to fit these criteria, but has no plans to do so, noting that McDonald’s will represent American food in a new food court that will include cuisine from around the world.
“The Louvre welcomes the fact that the entirety of visitors and customers, French or foreign, can enjoy such a rich and varied restaurant offer, whether in the museum area or gallery,” read a statement from the museum.
A French website, Louvre pour Tous (Louvre for All) is criticizing the museum administration for not blocking the McDonald’s.
“Henri Loyette, president of the Louvre museum, just had to say one word to stop the whiff of French fries from wafting past the Mona Lisa’s nose,” noted an article on the website, without any trace of irony.
There’s already a Virgin megastore in the Carrousel du Louvre and an Apple computer store also is scheduled to open soon.
The McDonald’s franchise owner is an Italian company, Autogrill, owned by the Benetton family that is famous in the world of retail fashion.
The Louvre statement said Autogrill “has taken the utmost care in ensuring the quality of the project, both in culinary and aesthetic terms.”
“It is a great development opportunity for Autogrill in France,” said Autogrill France CEO Roberto Colombo. “We will create a totally unique offering. It will be adapted to… meet the needs of a cosmopolitan clientele of tourists from around the world.”
Related Articles:
Comments
