Louvre is one of the world's largest, richest and best organised museums. Its displays consist of countless masterpieces of art from all over the world. Paintings, sculptures and other artefacts are nicely arranged in a gigantic complex of a former residence of French kings.
Louvre Museum is divided into 8 sections: Near Eastern Antiquities, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Islamic Art, Sculptures, Decorative Arts, Paintings, and Prints and Drawings.
Louvre Museum covers an area of 60,600 square metres on which more than 35,000 works are displayed. The museum palace has 2,410 windows 3,000 locks and 10,000 stairs, which clearly suggests that it is impossible to see the whole museum in a day.
In comparison to magnificent buildings of Louvre Museum, hordes of tourists waiting patiently to purchase their tickets in the inner courtyard seem small and unimportant, like a bunch of ants. Even the gigantic glass pyramid that has been erected in the courtyard gives an impression of a crystal toy. The palaces of Louvre themselves are an impressive affair, not to speak about the art collections.
A visit to Louvre Museum requires a great deal of logistic planning. Visit their website and decide which art pieces you would like to see most and which you could skip in case you run out of time. Make a plan of your movements through the building so that you will not waste time walking from one end to another and back. Also, take into account that you will most probably need to wait long to buy the tickets. If you do not wish to wait and plan to visit several museums in Paris, consider getting a Paris Museum Pass. Louvre has a special entrance for Paris Museum Pass holders. We visited the museum a couple of times and there was never a queue at that special entrance.
The most besieged room at Louvre Museum is certainly the one with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. This is possibly the only room at Louvre Museum which is crowded all the time. Sometimes there might be quite some people in other rooms too, but unlike the room with Mona Lisa, they never get unpleasantly busy.
Take note that Louvre Museum is open every day except Tuesdays. This is a bit unusual as normally museums are closed on Mondays. Due to the chronic lack of staff some permanent exhibitions at Louvre Museum might be closed occasionally. Check the schedule at the museum's website.
Apart from Mona Lisa, there are many other gems in Louvre Museum worth mentioning. We were most impressed by the Napoleon III Apartments, Rubens's room (with splendid collection of Rubens's works), The Raft of the Medusa (the work of Géricault portraying hungry, thirsty and exhausted castaways from the ship Medusa, floating on a small raft), The Wedding Feast at Cana (which is considered the most remarkable work of Veronese), Michelangelo's sculpture The Slave, the Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses… And we could go on.
Location: main entrance: Entrée principale par la Pyramide. Metro: Palais Royal Musée du Louvre. Web (opening times, admission ticket prices, renovation information, interactive map of Louvre Museum, detailed information on collections etc.): www.louvre.fr
Louvre Museum Map
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