We show you what you can see in the Louvre Museum, an essential museum on your visit to Paris. We give you advice to visit it.
One of the essential museums if you visit Paris. If you can dedicate more than one day to it, better, but if it is not possible, still do not miss it during your trip to France. In this post we will show you what to see in the Louvre during a half day visit. This is a top place in Paris not to be missed.
How to get to the Louvre Museum?
It can be reached by metro, the most convenient stations are Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre on lines 1 and 7 and the Louvre-Rivoli station on line 1.
Buying the tickets
Tickets are purchased at the box office or online. To avoid the queue at the box office, it is advisable to buy them online, but in this case you have to be very clear about the time you are going to visit.
Visiting Hours: Open every day, except Tuesday, from 9 AM to 6 PM, and until 9:45 PM on Wednesday and Friday.
Price: 17 euros. To avoid the queue we recommend using the Paris Pass.
You can also book guided tours of the Louvre, which already include admission and just over two hours of explanations about the most important works. There are also audio guides available at the box office for 5 euros.
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A little bit of history
The origin of the Louvre dates back to the 13th century. It was the royal palace in Paris until Louis XIV transferred it to Versailles. It was transformed into a museum in 1793, during the French revolution. In it are works of art ranging from 7 B.C. until the 1850s. The collections are distributed over five floors and three wings.
Something to know and accept beforehand when visiting the Louvre Museum: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE EVERYTHING IN A SINGLE DAY. Once we accept this, we will be able to visit the museum without excessive stress and rather thinking about which are the works that we do not want to miss during our visit.
What to see in Louvre Museum? let’s visit
Don’t forget to take the maps offered at the entrance, they are available in several languages, including English and Spanish. The ideal is to take note of the plants and the works that we do want to see, once this is done we can now “get lost in the museum” and calmly observe during the time that we have available. I recommend staying all day in the museum to get the most out of it.
We leave you the official map of the Louvre for you to consult here.
Find your way through the halls
Depending on what time you go, and this happens almost all the time, the museum will be full of people. It is an unavoidable fact that must be accepted. It is something that you can mitigate by arriving first thing in the morning, although you will still be alone for a very short time. Or staying until the end, but with no guarantee that it will be empty.
Take a deep breath and try to walk calmly, don’t let the crowd stop you from admiring the works you’ve come to see.
Greek and Roman statues
Several of these statues are exhibited in the museum and it was the first section we visited during our visit. Like the ones we saw in the Archaeological Museum of Athens, it is impressive to see the detail with which they were made, especially considering how old they are.
Arts of America
In the Louvre there is a large section dedicated to the arts of America, it exhibits archaeological pieces that we can easily recognize from which country they come.
European Paintings
There are many works of ancient art from Spain, France, Italy and Northern Europe to see at the Louvre. There are so many paintings that, in one day, it is impossible to see them all. At least admire them properly.
Personally, I have to say that this is the type of painting that I enjoy the most, I love seeing the detail with which they were made. Everything so subtle and delicate, sometimes it looks like a photo.
The encounter with the Mona Lisa
I have to say that it is, by far, the room with the most visitors and everyone rushes to see it. Everyone wants to take a picture of her and it’s hard to truly admire her. Even worse for the other works that are in that room, it is almost impossible to observe them calmly. I still didn’t want to leave without my “Mona Lisa selfie” and I got it, but I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by the amount of people there. But at the same time if you ask yourself what to see in Louvre Museum? this is one of the things that you MUST see, so the feelings are mixed.
In that case I prefer the way they handle it at the Cenacolo Vinciano in Milan, where you can admire it with few people but for a limited time, at least for that short time you can admire the work in peace.
Objects of the Empire and the Crown
In another section of the museum we could see several rooms with objects from the times of the French kings and more recently: from Napoleon’s empire. We even saw the bed where he slept and the jewels of his wife the empress.
Louvre pyramid
Despite being a fairly recent construction, today nobody imagines the Louvre Museum without its glass pyramids. But you have to know that at the time there was a lot of controversy surrounding its construction, it was carried out by the Sino-American architect Ming Pei and the project had to suffer attacks from the conservative media who opposed “a pyramid of glass” was there for branding it as “zero degree of architecture” or “house of the dead”. Construction was finally completed in 1989.
Today it is a symbol of the Louvre Museum and another attraction for visitors.
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