Find out how to Navigate Paris’s Louvre Museum Like a Professional

How do you fall in love with the Louvre? The largest, 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 concerned with a relationship.

The constructing has sat, stonily, on the Proper Financial institution of the Seine for hundreds of years, beginning as a medieval navy 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 occasions, satisfying their vainness however abandoning a sprawling construction that lacks logic. Its galleries, facades, staircases, and ceilings are particular person jewels, however collectively they don’t kind a coherent entire. 

I keep in mind nothing in regards to the first time I visited the Louvre, the summer season after my junior yr in school. 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 dimensions 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 relations, 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 prime 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 identify. However even she remembers nothing in regards to the very first time she visited the Louvre. “I can not actually pin the second,” she says. “I was not an important museum-goer once 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—until you recognize historical past, mythology, and the Bible,” Henri Loyrette, who served as director of the museum for 12 years, advised 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 discover ways 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 artistic endeavors by making connections and beginning conversations as I roamed the galleries—with specialists, guards, mates, even good strangers.

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

Someplace alongside the way in which, I fell in love. 

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

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

It’s essential to e-book timed tickets prematurely, as solely a small variety of walk-ins are allowed per day. You’ll be able to keep away from the principle entrance on the pyramid by attempting the underground Carrousel entrance, however it will possibly 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 shoppers 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 might help keep away from the traces. Even with the Louvre’s choice in 2023 to slash the variety of entry tickets by 30 %, there could also be a wait, and it might be an extended one, no matter your technique.

Come relaxed, not burdened from a trip in an overcrowded Métro or a taxi that has been trapped in central Paris’s gridlock. And don’t rely on consuming if 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 among 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 in case you ordered only one chocolat chaud and sat there for 5 hours. However scorching chocolate will not be 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 house 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 mandatory. 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.

Many of the explanatory labels close to every murals are transient and written solely in French. The official foldout map, displaying areas 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. When you attempt to keep longer with out a break, your ft will harm, and you’ll overlook a lot of what you noticed. Journey mild, with a small backpack or the smallest purse doable; depart the guidebook, the sketchbook, and the water bottle house. Put on sturdy footwear. For the slippery stone, particularly the marble stairs, I might stick along with your most structured trainers. To attenuate 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 haven’t any college, releasing throngs of households for museum-going.

The Louvre additionally closes sure rooms (cleansing, renovations, lack of safety employees) and pronounces the closures on its web site. In case you are decided to see sure artworks, studying up prematurely affords some assist. There are millions of guidebooks. My favourite is an oversize, 107-page official information with wonderful shade photos, Masterpieces of the Louvre. It is available in a number of languages and could be bought for simply eight euros on the museum or by means of its on-line retailer.

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

Then we mount a staircase on the correct, after which one other, additionally to our proper, and enter the vaulted Renaissance music gallery often known as Le Salle des Caryatides, with its historic Roman statues. Via the home windows, we view the pyramid on the correct 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 means of the juncture of the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan collections. We take a fast have a look at the Baroque ceiling, then head up the steps to the Winged Victory of Samothrace. We’ve got 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 take a seat close to the home windows that look out to the ground beneath.) Then by means 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 an extended 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 until 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 occasions greater than the Mona Lisa. And we don’t depart 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 appears at them, however we do! 

After we depart the Salle des États by means of the Mona Lisa reward store, we flip to the Pink Room, which is stuffed with one of the best of Neoclassical artwork, from David’s Coronation of Napoleon to Ingres’ Grande Odalisque, one of the crucial stunning 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 Folks. 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 a number of the finest the Louvre has to supply.

Now for my soiled little secret about conquer the Louvre stress-free. Whereas entry is free for a lot of, the value of a normal ticket is 22 euros (about $23) and anticipated to price 30 euros (about $31) in 2026. When you plan to go to a number of occasions over the course of a visit, splurge and turn out to be a Buddy of the Louvre. For 80 euros—the value of dinner with wine at a good bistro—you should purchase an annual membership (120 euros for 2 individuals). You’ll be able to apply prematurely on-line, with a photograph; the cardboard shall 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, get pleasure from limitless entry, lower the road like a star, and keep for so long as you need. It’s the finest cultural deal in Paris.

Launch an opération séduction on the employees. “When you’re a standard 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, advised me. “As an alternative, be extraordinarily good to all the workers—say ‘Bonjour’ to all the safety guards. They may use appreciation from the guests, as a result of they’re those nobody appears 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 ground 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 again and again, “I am in Paris. I’m within the Louvre.” 

Excerpted from Adventures within the Louvre: Find out how to Fall in Love With the World’s Best Museum, revealed this month by W. W. Norton & Firm.

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