Photos of the Day: A Louvre Queue, Taormina, Catania's Old Streets, Lisbon Pastries, and a Château Roundabout

Five random frames pulled out of the travel folder today. No theme, no thread connecting them, just what came up.

The Mona Lisa queue at the Louvre

First up is the Salle des États at the Louvre, stanchions and all. People three deep behind the ropes, phones up, inching forward while a guard in a black suit keeps the line moving. Nobody in that room is looking at the painting so much as trying to get a clean shot of it. Worth remembering for next time before booking a timed slot.

Taormina, Sicily, seen from above the Ionian coast

Taormina from up on its stone shelf, about 200 meters over the water. The town sits there like it's daring you to make the climb, and then the view does all the convincing on its own.

Giovanni Formisano and the Sicilian dialect tradition, Catania

Catania's lava-stone streets doing what they do best: baroque facades, black cobblestones in Piazza del Duomo, and fish vendors at La Pescheria haggling in a dialect thick enough to lose a foreigner in three words. A city that's been telling stories for a very long time.

Pastel de nata and coffee on a black tray in Lisbon

One pastel de nata, one coffee, black tray, no further negotiation required. Still the best two euros a person can spend in Lisbon.

Château d'Angers with traffic circling the roundabout

And a favorite from Angers: seventeen striped towers of a medieval fortress doing absolutely nothing to slow down the roundabout traffic in front of it. Cars, scooters, a bronze King René watching it all, and a fortress that's seen worse than rush hour.

That's the travel batch for today: