An American tourist documented her recent trip to Paris, including her frustration of getting a light shined on her at her at the Louvre.
Maggie Bonga from Nashville, Tennessee decided to go on a holiday to Europe with her cousins. Together, they visited London and Paris during their trip in March. However, not everything went as well as they'd expected.
When they arrived in Paris, they decided to visit the Louvre - one of the world's most famous art museums that's the home of the Mona Lisa. As they got there, they decided to take photos and make TikTok videos, but were soon exposed to a unique tactic of the locals who tried to get their attention.
In the video, which has been viewed over 4.6 million times, Maggie is seen posing in front of the Louvre in Paris along with her cousins when all of the sudden, a green laser lights were seen being shined on all of them.
"Has anyone else experienced getting lasers shined on you while trying to take pictures in a foreign country?" she wrote on the video.
The group of girls were seen hiding using their hands to protect their eyes from the green light as they did their best to enjoy the moment.
People quickly took to the comments sharing their own experiences of similar things having happened to them when they were on holiday.
"Someone did this to me once when I was a little kid in a mall. messed up," one person shared. While another person said: "I keep seeing all these videos of people getting issues like these in Paris. I've been there 6 months ago and never had any. Locals were nice, as well as restaurants staff, streets were clean."
A third TikTok uswe wrote: "The way I would start looking in the general direction of that laswer and find the person then start walking up to them. 'Oh hey you wanna talk!? What;s up?' Just overly happy and cheerful lol."
However, some viewers went on to share their theories what the reasons behind the lights could be. According to one commenter, the light is a tactic used by local sellers to get the attention of tourists. They wrote: "Yep, went last summer, it's street vendors trying to get your attention. I detested them."
However, another person shared another theory, saying: "Used as a distraction technique for pickpockets or scams. Be careful."
Meanwhile, others believed it had to do with the problem of over-tourism that's currently happening in France since the coronavirus>Covid pandemic, according to France24.
This has lead to several tourist attractions having set a limit of how many tourists are allowed in on a daily basis. The Louvre is also set to get a major redesign to accommodate the growing number of tourists.
English (United States) ·