Musée du Louvre

...of ‘must-see’ places was the Musée du Louvre. I thought I would tell you all about it.

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History

The Louvre is the world’s largest museum and was founded during the French Revolution in 1793 in the former Royal Palace of Louis XIV. The original palace was started in 1200 and the most recent addition is Le Pyramide in Cour Napoleon, basically a big glass pyramid in the Louvre’s central courtyard. ...
...when it was announced in 1989 but has now been taken to Parisian hearts. The museum has more than thirteen kilometres of galleries and holds more than 400,000 paintings, sculptures and objets d’arts. Only a fraction of these are displayed at any time. The collection really came into its own when Napoleon came back from his battles around Europe with wagons full of artistic bounty and this forms the backbone of the collection.

Arrival ... more

My boyfriend and I visited Paris for a long weekend in early February and top of both of our lists of ‘must-see’ places was the Musée du Louvre. I thought I would tell you all about it.

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History

The Louvre is the world’s largest museum and was founded during the French Revolution in 1793 in the former Royal Palace of Louis XIV. The original palace was started in 1200 and the most recent addition is Le Pyramide in Cour Napoleon, basically a big glass pyramid in the Louvre’s central courtyard. Added by former president François Mitterand, it was desperately unpopular when it was announced in 1989 but has now been taken to Parisian hearts. The museum has more than thirteen kilometres of galleries and holds more than 400,000 paintings, sculptures and objets d’arts. Only a fraction of these are displayed at any time. The collection really came into its own when Napoleon came back from his battles around Europe with wagons full of artistic bounty and this forms the backbone of the collection.

Arrival and Orientation

The easiest way to access the Louvre is probably by Metro, we rose early on the Saturday morning and got the Metro down to one of the two Louvre stations – Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre and Louvre-Rivoli. The former station tips you out into the Carrousel du Louvre, quite a funky little shopping centre with all the usual Parisian suspects, and from here you pass straight through security into the Hall Napoleon underneath Le Pyramide.

Another nice way to approach the museum is to wander up through the Tuileries gardens from Place de la Concord, be careful of the pigeons though – they take no prisoners. This way you get to see the building in all it’s grandeur and you get a good view of the Arc du Carrousel (like a scaled-down Arc de Triomphe) and the Pyramide. Either way you will end up in the Hall Napoleon.

If you haven’t bought tickets already you can purchase them from the machines here which seem to take credit cards and cash although we didn’t use them as we had Museum passes. The queues weren’t too long at 10am in the morning and seemed to move quickly. Bear in mind that if you have already bought tickets there are a couple more entrances (in Passage Richelieu or underneath the Arc du Carrousel) where you can bypass the queues on busier days. You can purchase tickets in advance online at the Louvre website (www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm) or at stores like FNAC, Galeries Lafayette, La Samaritaine and Virgin Megastore which can be found in all the main shopping areas of Paris.

Admission Costs:-
€8:50 before 6pm
€6 after 6pm
Free Admission is available to all under 18s and to everyone on the first Sunday of the month and on Bastille Day, July 14th.

Opening Hours:-
Open daily, except for Tuesdays and certain Public Holidays, from 9am-6pm
Open late, until 9:45pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Certain galleries are closed on certain days but there is usually a full list of these available at the information desk in the Hall Napoleon.

The information desks have Gallery Plans available free of charge in around twenty different languages – everything from French to Mandarin. I found this to be very useful. It folds into three and it is possible to easily fold it so you can see one floor on each side, making it easy to go from one floor to another. The plans also show many of the main attractions with arrows pointing to their location making it easy to move quickly around the museum.

The Museum has three wings on three floors – Denon, Sully and Richelieu. All three wings lead off from the Hall Napoleon on the Ground Floor and, from there, it is map to the ready as you go off in search of the many treasures the Louvre holds.

Collections

The Louvre has eight main collections, as follows:-
Paintings
Sculpture
Oriental Antiquities
Eqyptian Antiquities
Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities
Objets d’Arts
Prints and Drawings
Medieval Louvre

The last of these is not an exhibition space, you travel downstairs into the Sully wing’s basement to see the foundations of the original palace and defences. We found it quite eerie down there and it made a refreshing change from the relentless treasures to appreciate upstairs.

Things to See

Mona Lisa - It seems like the main reason anyone goes to the Louvre is to see the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. You approach the painting by wandering down the Grand Galerie (or sprinting down it if you are in a tour group). For anyone who is a fan of ‘The Da Vinci Code’, this is the gallery mentioned at the start of the novel where Langdon starts what turns out to be an unstoppable chain of events. The Grand Gallerie is lined on both sides with some amazing European paintings by the likes of Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio but an awful lot of visitors didn’t seem to spare these a second glance.
The Mona Lisa was, when we visited at the end of the Grand Galerie in a room called the Salon Rose but she will be moved to the nearby Salle d’Etats in April where she will be displayed alongside Veronese’s Marriage at Cana. I couldn’t help but be impressed by the Mona Lisa. Firstly, a lot of people say she is a lot smaller than they imagined so I was expecting something A4 sized but, in reality, the painting is around A2 size and displayed behind about a foot of glass. The painting is a sight to behold and has an intriguing, mysterious air about her, also the detail in the background is fantastic.

Something to mention is that the Louvre allows non-flash photography, I’m more used to museums enforcing strict ‘no camera’ rules and was quite surprised to see the Papparazzi scrum surrounding the painting (see the photo below).

Venus de Milo – Another crowd pleaser and much bigger than you would expect, situated in the Denon wing. I personally preferred a number of the nearby sculpture but she, like the Mona Lisa is an icon so well worth a look.

Winged Victory of Samothrace – Firstly this is my new favourite word (sam-o-thrace, just try it out, fab!). Secondly the sculpture itself is an impressive winged (no, really?) headless figurine standing atop the prow of a ship. It dominates the main staircase into the Denon wing, you will probably see it many times as you scoot about the galleries.

Napoleon III’s Apartments – These were in the Richelieu wing and comprise a whole suite of rooms left, more or less as Napoleon III left them. These were incredibly ornate – gold leaf and chandeliers everywhere. These took my breath away, it is hard to imagine people actually living in those surroundings.

Apollo Gallery – This was probably my favourite room in the entire museum, it was a large hall covered from floor to ceiling in frescoes, stucco, mouldings and gold leaf. Some of the paintings are by Delacroix and the gallery has recently (about a month before our visit) reopened after a three year refurbishment so we saw it at its best. In large glass cases the crown jewels on Napoleon and Josephine are displayed, thousands of diamonds and other precious stones of incalculable value – how I’d love to wear something like that, even for a minute!

The Louvre itself – Don’t discount the importance of the building itself, remember to look up every once in a while. The Louvre’s status as a former palace lingers in beautiful ceilings, woodwork and decoration. The scale of the building, its grandeur, was one of the main attractions in my view.

This is, obviously, just a small number of things to see. Other places not to miss were the rest of the paintings, the Egyptian section and the Islamic Arts section.

Boring Bits

If you are planning a visit I would have a look at a guidebook, most of the Paris books are very good on the Louvre, and visit the museum’s website which is excellent and has a full English version. It really is a good idea to have a reasonable plan in mind or you could find yourself wandering round in circles. Pounding the marble floors can be a bit tiring. All the books will tell you not to try and see everything…good advice…even if you try you won’t…the museum is simply too big. We gave it four hours and felt like we had seen enough - anymore and museum fatigue would definitely have set in.

Toilets are everywhere. All were clean and well signposted, as was the museum as a whole. The museum plans also show these effectively.

There are three cafes (one in Richelieu and two in Denon), we didn’t actually try any of these but they looked nice enough and, although a little overpriced, weren’t obscenely expensive. The menus were typically tourist fare and all were bustling by about 11am.

Shops are around all over the place and, in the Hall Napoleon, there are about five shops each concentrating on a different market (e.g. tickets, books, postcards and souvenirs, childrens products). Postcards were the only thing we bought and at 70c each were typically priced.

Disabled access was, I think, possible to quite a large amount of the museum. There are lifts dotted about (again see the plan) but, as is common in France, some places were only accessible by staircase. It is probably best to check in the reception area for clarification on this.

Highly recommended.

 

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