How do you fall in love with the laover? The biggest, most grand, most public repository in the world, it demands our attention. But love? Like a clear paramore, the laover cannot always be interested in a relationship.
The building has been sitting on the right bank of the scene for centuries, began as a medieval military fort at the end of the 12th century, then a palace and finally a museumRoyals and rulers rebuilt it more than 20 times, satisfied their pride, but left behind a huge structure that lacks logic. Its galleries, facades, stairs and roofs are individual jewelry, but together they do not create a consistent complete.
I remember that I saw the first time FlickerSummer after my junior year in college. I wish I could say that I moved from its glory, or felt the ghostly appearance of kings and queens. Perhaps I was disappointed with the scale of the place: long, dark corridors; Feathers closed due to lack of security guards; The room after the images of Jesus, Mary, and their relatives, followers, enemies, and an attendant angels. I must have seen Mona Lisa, But I wrote in my magazine: “I went to Lauvar and went out of the Tulleries Garden with shops.”
Like me, it took time for Lawrence Des Cars, Director of Lower, yield for the seductive power of the museum. Des cars came as the head of Mussi D’OSAI in 2021 in 2021, and a few years ago as the scientific director of the museum in Abu Dhabi, who tolerate the name of Louvar. But even for the first time she does not miss anything when she visited the Lauvar. “I can’t really pin this moment,” she says. “When I was a child I was not a great museum.”
While UMPTEEN efforts have been made to improve visiting experience, the directors of the laover have long accepted the challenges that present it – and its absence and the absence of the order. Henry Loyaret, who served as the director of the museum for 12 years, told me, “We have a very difficult collection – unless you know history, mythology and Bible,” Henry Loyaret, who 12 years Till worked as the director of the museum, told me. “No one can probably claim to be a ‘specialist of the laover’.” “Jean-Leuk Martinez, his successor, said,” Lauvar is a palace and not the logic of a museum. “Des cars called it” a big, jumble encyclopedia “.
To free myself from getting away from my forbidden quantity, I had to learn how to visit the Lauvar. I had to donate the mantra of the humility of the loyaret. I had to wander and get lost and forgot about time. I had to come to know the works of art by creating a connection and starting the conversation because I wandered in galleries with experts, guards, even with the right strangers.
And so, the time and long familiarity, the Lauvar pulled me into his fist. I no longer see it as a fort, palace or museum, but as a living character with many personalities.
Somewhere on the way, I fell in love.
Chris Sorences/Gallery Stock
In years of test and error, I have developed a personal strategy to make a laover journey more enjoyable for both the first-time and older hands.
It can take it to go inside forever. In summer of 2013, shortly after the director’s name, Martinez posed as an ordinary tourist and stood in line at the main entrance. It took him more than three hours to enter. It is not so bad even today, but still not quite good.
It is important to book tickets on time in advance, as only a small number of walk-in is allowed per day. You can avoid the main entrance to the pyramid by trying to enter underground carocel, but can also be closed. You can line up before the museum opens, but this strategy can backfire if a lot of guides and their customers do the same thing. Sometimes it works better at lunch time or at the end of the day. Appearing in a trip to an organized group or hiring private guides can help avoid lines. Even with the decision of Louvre in 2023, to reduce the number of entry tickets by 30 percent, there may be a waiting, and it can be a longer, which is also your strategy.
Come comfortably, not under stress from a ride in a crowded metro or a taxi that is trapped in the gridlock of the middle Paris. And when you reach inside, do not trust food. Food stations are crowded, and the fare is average. It is best to arrive directly from a cafe to the laover. (I have a mantra: “Never come on an empty stomach or with a full bladder.”) Take my favorite place, the nemource, which is three minutes away from the museum on the collet. If you order just one then there will be no bad in Le Namers Chocolate chound And sat there for five hours. But hot chocolate is not your goal. So strengthen yourself with the head towards a traditional, correctly toasted croc sage and museum.
Once inside, you ride the escalator in an open circular space with the spirit of the terminal of an airport. You hear the noise of the crowd before seeing it. The indications that warning visitors to look out for the pickpocket are unnecessary but necessary. If it is a sunny day, it becomes hot; The sunlight bounces from the yellow stone floor and makes you blind. Your journey has not even started, but you already feel disorient.
Most of the art work near each work of art is brief and are written only in French. The official foldout map seems to be designed to confuse, showing places of performance.
But do not let the incomplete reception of the laover be discouraged. You are here to see great art. You have paid admission to enter, and temptation is worth your money. Most people can manage at once from ninety minutes to two hours. If you try to stay for a long time without a break, your feet will hurt, and you will forget what you saw. Travel light, possible with a small backpack or the smallest handbag; Leave the guidebook, sketchbook and water bottle home. Wear strong shoes. Slast stone, especially for marble stairs, I will stick to your most structured running shoes. To reduce distractions, avoid Monday. This is the worst day to go, because the Mussi D’Orosai is closed, the growing demand in the laover (which itself is closed on Tuesday). Avoid Wednesday afternoon, as French children do not have any schools, freeing the adventures of families for the museum.
The Louvre also stops some rooms (cleaning, renewal, shortage of security staff) and announces a closure on its website. If you are firm to see some artifacts, reading in advance gets some help. There are thousands of guidebooks. My favorite is an oversize, 107-page official guide with excellent color images, Excellent creations of Lauvar. It comes in many languages and can be purchased for only eight euros in the museum or through its online store.
As much as I like to wander, I can visit a basic flaw pilgrims in two hours – Biggi and much more. I take the guests to the suli wing, through a vestibuel where the walls are decorated with four frames, and then to see the waste of the wall of a centuries -old fort in a long tunnel.
Then we mount a ladder to the right, and then another, also to our right, and Volted Renaissance enters the music gallery, known as Le Salle des Cautides, with its ancient Roman sculptures. Through the windows, we look at the pyramids on the right and the court kerae on the left and continue directly to the Venus de Millo in the next door room.
We breathe here. Then there is a correct twist through the junction of Greek, Roman and Etruscan collections. We take a quick look at the baroque sealing, then head the stairs to win the wings of the semothress, We have now reached Denon Wing and find ourselves at the busiest intersection of the museum. First, we reveal the beauty of the goddess of victory. Then we move to the left razal-dasal Apollo gallery, where crown jewels are displayed. When we are blinded by the royal legacy of France-or what is left about it-we return to the victory of U-turn and wings,
This time we take a right, stop because we face bothelikeli Venus. (There are cool places to sit near the windows that appear on the floor below.) Then through the salon carrine, with its 13th to 15th century Italian paintings, and more famous and later in Grande Gallery and later Italian paintings , Which is not a gallery but a long corridor. We do not miss four leonardos! Walking to the length of Grande Gallery, we then take the crowd to a room that goes to see the cell des états Mona Lisa. I tell my guests not to waste 20 minutes waiting for 20 minutes to see her from the side until they are firm to take a selfie with her. Then i insist Wedding feast in Caina, 150 times larger than Mona Lisa. And we don’t leave without spending time with Titian Man with a glove. On the other side of the division where Mona Lisa Hangs are three other Titians. Hardly anyone sees them, but we do!
When we leave through the cell des états Mona Lisa Gift shop, we turn to the red room, which is full of the best neo -classical art from David. Napoleon’s coronation Ingres’ Grande Odalisque, One of the most beautiful women in the laover. Then we go back to the second gallery next to the salon Denon, to see what the romanticism has done in the gericault Medusa fleet And delacroex Freedom is leading peopleAfter this we will find ourselves in Escallier Molion, which we descend to see how Michael Angelo captured the beauty of two slaves in marble. At Voila, We have seen that some of the best lakes have to be introduced.
Now about my dirty small mystery how to conquer the flavor stress-free. While the entry is free for many, a standard ticket is expected to cost 22 euros (about $ 23) and cost 30 euros (about $ 31) in 2026. If you plan to travel several times during a trip, a friend of Lauvar. For 80 Euros – Price of dinner with alcohol in a prestigious bistro – you can buy an annual membership (120 euros for two people). You can apply in advance with a photo; The card will be mail you. Or apply to a person in Ames Do Lauvar Office inside the flavor. You simply wave the card at the richelieu entrance, enjoy unlimited entry, cut the line like a celebrity, and stay as long as you want. It is the best cultural deal in Paris.
Launch Option sedation On employees. “If you are a normal person, you can feel aggressive and disappointed,” told me by a director of the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York and a former flaw curator. “Instead, be great for all employees – say”Bonjour‘For all security guards. They can use praise from visitors, as they are those whom no one sees apart from complaints. If you treat a French person with kindness, all doors will open to you. ,
When all this sounds heavy, the head in a quiet place: a marble bench in the lower floor of Islamic art, probably, or pusin paintings, or a marble bench in the Marli sculpture courtyard. Just tell myself again and again, “I am in Paris. I am in the laover. ,
excerpt from Adventures in Lauvar: How to fall in love with the world’s greatest museum, This month was published by WW Norton & Co..
A version of this story first appeared in the March 2025 issue. Travel + holiday Under the title “Learning to Love the Louvre.,
