Culture Talk

How to survive the Louvre: a guide from someone who got lost there 3 times

I am French, I live 2 hours from Paris, and I have been lost in the Louvre three separate times. Once I was looking for the toilet and found Egyptian sarcophagi instead. Here is what I learned.

Book a time slot online. Walking up without a ticket is how you lose your morning.

Don't enter by the pyramid if the line is crazy. There are other entrances, including one from the underground shopping mall. Locals know. Now you know.

The Mona Lisa is a sport, not an artwork. Do it first or skip it. Meanwhile the huge Veronese right behind her is ignored by everybody, and it is much more fun to look at.

Pick one wing. Denon, Sully or Richelieu. You will not see everything. Nobody has ever seen everything. Some people went in in 1993 and are still inside.

The Richelieu wing has the Napoleon III apartments, which look like a very rich grandma's house. Highly recommended.