Navigate Paris’s Louvre Museum Like a Professional

How do you fall in love with the Louvre? The greatest, grandest, most visited public repository of artwork on the earth, it calls for our consideration. However love? Like an evasive paramour, the Louvre might not at all times appear to be focused on a relationship.

The constructing has sat, stonily, on the Proper Financial institution of the Seine for hundreds of years, beginning as a medieval army fortress on the finish of the twelfth century, then turning into a palace and at last a museum. Royals and rulers renovated it greater than 20 instances, satisfying their vainness however forsaking a sprawling construction that lacks logic. Its galleries, facades, staircases, and ceilings are particular person jewels, however collectively they don’t type a coherent entire. 

I bear in mind nothing in regards to the first time I visited the Louvre, the summer time after my junior 12 months in faculty. I want I may say I used to be moved by its majesty, or felt the ghostly presence of kings and queens. Maybe I used to be pissed off by the size of the place: the lengthy, darkish corridors; wings closed due to a scarcity of safety guards; room after room of work of Jesus, Mary, and their family, followers, enemies, and attendant angels. I will need to have seen the Mona Lisa, however all I wrote in my journal was: “I went to the Louvre and walked outdoors of the Tuileries Backyard alongside the outlets.”

Like me, it took time for Laurence des Automobiles, the director of the Louvre, to yield to the museum’s seductive energy. Des Automobiles got here to the Louvre’s high job in 2021 after 4 years as head of the Musée d’Orsay, and a few years earlier than that as scientific director of the museum in Abu Dhabi that bears the Louvre’s title. However even she remembers nothing in regards to the very first time she visited the Louvre. “I can’t actually pin the second,” she says. “I was not an important museum-goer after I was a child.”

Whereas there have been umpteen efforts to enhance the customer expertise, administrators of the Louvre have lengthy acknowledged the challenges it presents—and its absence of cohesion and order. “Ours is a really troublesome assortment to grasp—except you realize historical past, mythology, and the Bible,” Henri Loyrette, who served as director of the museum for 12 years, informed me. “Nobody can presumably declare to be a ‘specialist of the Louvre.’ ” Jean-Luc Martinez, his successor, mentioned “the Louvre is a palace and doesn’t have the logic of a museum.” Des Automobiles calls it “a big, jumbled encyclopedia.”

To free myself from feeling overcome by its forbidding magnitude, I needed to learn to go to the Louvre. I needed to don the mantle of Loyrette’s humility. I needed to wander and get misplaced and overlook about time. I needed to come to know the artworks by making connections and beginning conversations as I roamed the galleries—with specialists, guards, mates, even excellent strangers.

And so, over time and lengthy acquaintance, the Louvre has pulled me into its grasp. I now not see it as a fortress, palace, or museum, however as a dwelling, respiration character with a number of personalities.

Someplace alongside the best way, I fell in love. 

Over years of trial and error, I’ve developed private methods to make a Louvre go to extra satisfying, for each first-timers and previous fingers.

It will probably take perpetually to get in. In the summertime of 2013, shortly after he was named director, Martinez posed as an strange vacationer and stood in line on the important entrance. It took him greater than three hours to enter. It’s not practically that dangerous at the moment, however nonetheless not good sufficient.

It’s essential to e-book timed tickets upfront, as solely a small variety of walk-ins are allowed per day. You’ll be able to keep away from the primary entrance on the pyramid by making an attempt the underground Carrousel entrance, however it could actually additionally get clogged. You’ll be able to line up earlier than the museum opens, however that tactic can backfire if too many guides and their purchasers do the identical factor. Typically going at lunchtime or on the finish of the day works higher. Becoming a member of an organized group go to or hiring a personal information can assist keep away from the traces. Even with the Louvre’s determination in 2023 to slash the variety of entry tickets by 30 p.c, there could also be a wait, and it may very well be a protracted one, no matter your technique.

Come relaxed, not pressured from a trip in an overcrowded Métro or a taxi that has been trapped in central Paris’s gridlock. And don’t depend on consuming whenever you get inside. The meals stations are crowded, and the fare is mediocre. It’s finest to reach on the Louvre straight from a café. (One in every of my mantras is: “By no means come to the Louvre on an empty abdomen or with a full bladder.”) My favourite spot is Le Nemours, a three-minute stroll from the museum on the Place Colette. Nobody at Le Nemours would thoughts should you ordered only one chocolat chaud and sat there for 5 hours. However scorching chocolate is just not your purpose. So fortify your self with a conventional, accurately toasted croque monsieur and head towards the museum.

As soon as inside, you trip down escalators into an open round area with the texture of an airport terminal. You hear the noise of the group earlier than you see it. The indicators warning guests to look out for pickpockets are unnerving however crucial. If it’s a sunny day, it will get scorching; daylight bounces off the pale stone flooring and blinds you. Your go to hasn’t even began, however you already really feel disoriented.

A lot of the explanatory labels close to every murals are transient and written solely in French. The official foldout map, exhibiting places of the displays, appears designed to confuse.

However don’t let the Louvre’s imperfect welcome discourage you. You’re right here to see nice artwork. You’ve paid admission to get in, and the temptation is to get your cash’s price. Ninety minutes to 2 hours is what most individuals can handle in a single go. In case you attempt to keep longer and not using a break, your ft will harm, and you’ll overlook a lot of what you noticed. Journey gentle, with a small backpack or the smallest purse attainable; go away the guidebook, the sketchbook, and the water bottle house. Put on sturdy footwear. For the slippery stone, particularly the marble stairs, I’d stick together with your most structured trainers. To reduce distractions, keep away from Mondays. It’s the worst day to go, as a result of the Musée d’Orsay is closed, rising demand on the Louvre (which is itself closed on Tuesdays). Keep away from Wednesday afternoon, as a result of French kids don’t have any college, releasing throngs of households for museum-going.

The Louvre additionally closes sure rooms (cleansing, renovations, lack of safety workers) and pronounces the closures on its web site. If you’re decided to see sure artworks, studying up upfront affords some assist. There are millions of guidebooks. My favourite is an oversize, 107-page official information with wonderful coloration pictures, Masterpieces of the Louvre. It is available in a number of languages and might be bought for simply eight euros on the museum or by way of its on-line retailer.

As a lot as I choose wandering, I can provide a primary Louvre pilgrims’ tour—the biggies and extra—in two hours. I take company up the escalator to the Sully wing, by way of a vestibule the place the partitions are embellished with 4 friezes, after which into a protracted tunnel to see the vestiges of a centuries-old fortress wall.

Then we mount a staircase on the precise, after which one other, additionally to our proper, and enter the vaulted Renaissance music gallery often known as Le Salle des Caryatides, with its historical Roman statues. By means of the home windows, we view the pyramid on the precise and the Cour Carrée on the left and proceed straight to the Venus de Milo, within the room subsequent door.

We take a breath right here. Then comes a proper flip by way of the juncture of the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan collections. We take a fast take a look at the Baroque ceiling, then head up the steps to the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Now we have now reached the Denon wing and discover ourselves on the museum’s busiest crossroads. First, we experience the fantastic thing about the goddess of victory. Then we proceed to the left into the razzle-dazzle Apollo Gallery, the place the crown jewels are displayed. After we’ve been blinded by France’s royal heritage—or what’s left of it—we U-turn and return to the Winged Victory.

This time we take a proper, pausing as we encounter Botticelli’s Venus. (There are quiet locations to sit down close to the home windows that look out to the ground beneath.) Then by way of the Salon Carré, with its Thirteenth- to Fifteenth-century Italian work, and extra well-known and later Italian work within the Grande Galerie, which isn’t a gallery however a protracted hall. We don’t miss the 4 Leonardos! Strolling the size of the Grande Galerie, we then observe the group to a room that results in the Salle des États to see the Mona Lisa. I inform my company to not waste 20 minutes ready in line except they’re decided to take a selfie together with her, however to take a look at her from the aspect. Then I insist we take within the different nice work within the room, beginning with Veronese’s The Wedding ceremony Feast at Cana, 150 instances larger than the Mona Lisa. And we don’t go away with out spending time with Titian’s Man with a Glove. On the opposite aspect of the partition the place the Mona Lisa hangs are three different Titians. Hardly anybody seems at them, however we do! 

After we go away the Salle des États by way of the Mona Lisa present store, we flip to the Purple Room, which is crammed with one of the best of Neoclassical artwork, from David’s Coronation of Napoleon to Ingres’ Grande Odalisque, probably the most lovely girls within the Louvre. Then we return to the opposite gallery subsequent to the Salon Denon to see what Romanticism did finest in Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa and Delacroix’s Liberty Main the Individuals. After this we’ll discover ourselves on the Escalier Mollien, which we descend to witness how Michelangelo captured in marble the fantastic thing about two slaves. Et voilà, we’ve seen among the finest the Louvre has to supply.

Now for my soiled little secret about how you can conquer the Louvre stress-free. Whereas entry is free for a lot of, the worth of a typical ticket is 22 euros (about $23) and anticipated to value 30 euros (about $31) in 2026. In case you plan to go to a number of instances over the course of a visit, splurge and develop into a Good friend of the Louvre. For 80 euros—the worth of dinner with wine at a good bistro—you should buy an annual membership (120 euros for 2 folks). You’ll be able to apply upfront on-line, with a photograph; the cardboard might be mailed to you. Or apply in individual on the Amis du Louvre workplace contained in the Louvre. You simply wave the cardboard on the Richelieu entrance, take pleasure in limitless entry, minimize the road like a celeb, and keep for so long as you need. It’s the finest cultural deal in Paris.

Launch an opération séduction on the workers. “In case you’re a traditional individual, you would possibly really feel aggressive and pissed off,” Guillaume Kientz, director of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York and a former Louvre curator, informed me. “As an alternative, be extraordinarily good to all the staff—say ‘Bonjour’ to all the safety guards. They may use appreciation from the guests, as a result of they’re those nobody seems at besides to complain. If you deal with a French individual with kindness, all of the doorways will open for you.” 

When all of it feels overwhelming, head to a quiet place: the decrease flooring of Islamic Arts, maybe, or the rooms with the Poussin work, or a marble bench within the Marly sculpture courtyard. Simply say to your self time and again, “I am in Paris. I’m within the Louvre.” 

Excerpted from Adventures within the Louvre: Fall in Love With the World’s Biggest Museum, printed this month by W. W. Norton & Firm.

A model of this story first appeared within the March 2025 difficulty of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline “Studying to Love the Louvre.”