The Christian Science Monitor looks at the soon-to-become-cliche fact that museum attendance in Paris is skyrocketing:

Like a business rediscovering its core competency, the city of light is using its famed spring to do what it does best – the art show. No fewer than 12 major exhibitions have opened in recent weeks, a veritable tsunami of culture. [ . . . ]

The reputed worry in the Culture Ministry here, prior to the great spring art earthquake, is that locals might cut back and stay home. But Parisians aren’t arguing post-modern economics on the Left Bank; they are lining up at museums, particularly the Warhol (120,000 tickets in 24 days), in record numbers.

Americans supposedly go to the ballpark and buy hot dogs to forget their wounded 401(k)s. Here, they ride the metro to the Louvre. As one museum official told Le Monde, “In times of crisis, people need the emotional compensation of nearness.”

In Paris in Spring, Thoughts Turn to .  .  . the Art Show (Christian Science Monitor)