French Minister of Culture Rima Abdelmalek announced that “the famous museums of the Louvre and Versailles will turn off their lights ahead of schedule as a symbolic measure to remind them of the energy crisis caused by the Ukrainian war.”

And earlier this week, Paris city officials announced they would “begin to turn off the lights adorning the city’s landmarks hours earlier than usual, causing the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks to go dark due to high energy costs.”

Abdel-Malik indicated that “the lights of the Louvre Pyramid will also be turned off at 11:00 pm instead of the first morning, and the façade of the Château de Versailles in southwest Paris will turn off at 10:00 pm, one hour before the scheduled time.”

The minister also urged French cultural institutions to “follow energy-saving practices similar to those of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, which reduced energy consumption by only a third by replacing lamps and switching to LEDs.”

She indicated that “discussions are under way with cinemas to replace their projectors, noting that, “if they switch to laser projectors, they can divide their power consumption by seven.”

In this context, energy prices in Europe have risen significantly in recent months, partly due to the turmoil in the energy markets caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.