This louvre museum guide exists because the Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum — 8.7 million visitors in 2024 — with roughly 35,000 works on permanent display across 73,000m² of galleries. You cannot see everything. A smart 3-4 hour visit hits the unmissable masterpieces, gives you context for the rest, and leaves you wanting a second trip. This guide provides the floor-plan strategy, ticket logistics, the route through the three wings, and a candid list of what to skip.
The Louvre rewards preparation. Read the wing breakdown below before booking your timed slot, decide whether you want the 90-minute hit-and-run or the 6-hour deep dive, then pick your entrance.
The Louvre at a Glance: Key 2026 Stats
Before the strategy, the numbers. The Louvre is enormous, ancient, and weirder than most visitors expect — it was a fortress, then a palace, then a public museum, and the layers are visible if you know where to look. Here is what defines the institution in 2026.
- Annual visitors: 8.7 million in 2024, capped at 30,000 per day by timed entry.
- Works on display: approximately 35,000 at any given time.
- Total collection: more than 380,000 objects, the majority in storage and on rotation.
- Exhibition space: 73,000m² across three wings on three floors plus basement.
- Departments: 8 curatorial departments (Egyptian, Greek/Roman, Near Eastern, Islamic, Paintings, Sculptures, Decorative Arts, Prints & Drawings).
- Wings: Denon (south), Sully (east), Richelieu (north) — arranged in a giant horseshoe around the Cour Napoléon.
- Closed day: Tuesday, every week, year-round.
- Longest hours: Friday until 9:45pm (the “Friday Late”).
- Standard adult ticket: €30 timed-entry via the official louvre.fr website.
The building itself is the oldest exhibit. Philippe Auguste built it as a defensive fortress in 1190; François I demolished the medieval keep and started the Renaissance palace in 1546; Louis XIV decamped to Versailles in 1682, effectively abandoning the Louvre for nearly a century. The revolutionary government opened it to the public on 10 August 1793 as one of the world’s first national museums. Napoleon looted half of Europe to fill it; much was returned after Waterloo, but the imperial appetite shaped the collection we walk through today.
The medieval fortress walls are still there. Walk down to the Sully basement and you can see the original 12th-century moat and donjon foundations, uncovered during the 1980s Grand Louvre renovation that also produced I.M. Pei’s glass Pyramid. That project unified three previously separate entrances under one underground hub and doubled the floor space by excavating beneath the courtyard.
Tickets in 2026: Every Option and How to Skip the Line
Ticketing at the Louvre changed permanently in 2019 with the introduction of mandatory timed entry, and the system has tightened every year since. The headline price for 2026 is €30 for an adult, €22 for non-EU visitors aged 18 to 25, and free for under-18s worldwide and for EU residents under 26 — but the price is the easy part. The hard part is getting the slot you want and choosing the right point of entry.
Buying direct from louvre.fr
The official website is the only place to buy at face value. Tickets release 60 days in advance at 8:30am Paris time, and popular slots sell out within hours. Set a calendar reminder and refresh at 8:29. You choose a 30-minute entry window; once inside, you can stay until closing. Bring the QR code on your phone.
The Friday Night ticket
Friday nights from 6pm to 9:45pm are the museum’s underused secret. 18-25s pay a flat €15; everyone else gets the standard €30 but with dramatically thinner crowds. The catch: some galleries begin shuttering at 6pm and 8pm, so hit closing galleries first (Egyptian basement, Richelieu) and finish in the always-open Denon paintings floor.
Guided skip-the-line tours
Get Your Guide, Take Walks and Context Travel sell 2-3 hour highlights tours for €90 to €150 per person, including timed entry. You pay double the ticket price for a guide, but you bypass solo booking stress and — crucially — learn where things are. For a first visit, the most defensible single expense in Paris.
Free entry days
Free on the first Saturday evening of each month from 6pm to 9:45pm, and on 14 July (Bastille Day). You still need a timed reservation, and the queues are real, but for travellers aligned with /paris-on-a-budget/ planning it is the single best deal in central Paris.
Paris Museum Pass
The Paris Museum Pass costs €70 for 2 days, €85 for 4 days, €105 for 6 days and includes the Louvre plus 50+ monuments. It pays for itself once you hit three sites; pair with /versailles-guide/ and /pantheon-paris-guide/. Pass holders still need a timed Louvre slot, booked free through louvre.fr.
What not to buy
Walk-up tickets do not exist any more — the Carrousel du Louvre underground entrance now requires the same timed reservation. Resellers like Tiqets and Viator are reliable but mark up 10-20%. Do not buy “skip-the-line” tickets that are not paired with a tour — everyone with a timed ticket skips the line.
| Ticket type | Price (2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Standard adult (louvre.fr) | €30 | Solo and family visits, book 60 days ahead |
| Youth 18-25 non-EU | €22 | Backpackers and students |
| Under 18 / EU under 26 | Free | Children, EU students — still needs timed slot |
| Friday Late 18-25 | €15 | Young adults on Friday evenings |
| Paris Museum Pass 2-day | €70 | Visitors hitting 3+ monuments |
| Guided skip-the-line tour | €90-150 | First-time visitors, time-poor |
| Free entry (1st Sat eve, 14 July) | Free | Budget travellers willing to queue |
The Three Wings: Denon, Sully, Richelieu Explained
Every Louvre visit begins under the Pyramid, and from that single hub three corridors fan out to the wings. Knowing which wing holds what saves the most time of anything in this guide. Memorise this and the museum stops feeling like a maze.
Denon (south wing, along the Seine)
Where 80% of tourists go and 80% of the famous works live. Denon holds Italian Renaissance (the Mona Lisa, Veronese’s Wedding at Cana, Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks), French 19th-century history painting (David’s Coronation, Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, Delacroix’s Liberty), Spanish painting, Greek antiquities including the Venus de Milo, and the Apollon Gallery with the French crown jewels. If you have 90 minutes, you spend them here.
Sully (east wing, the original 16th-century palace)
Sully wraps around the Cour Carrée and contains the oldest parts of the building. The basement reveals the medieval Louvre’s fortress walls and donjon. The ground and first floors hold Egyptian Antiquities (Seated Scribe, Great Sphinx of Tanis, Dendera Zodiac), Greek antiquities, and French paintings 14th-17th c. The Winged Victory of Samothrace sits where Sully meets Denon at the top of the Daru Staircase.
Richelieu (north wing, Rue de Rivoli side)
Richelieu was a government ministry until 1989. It now holds Near Eastern Antiquities (Code of Hammurabi, Lamassu winged bulls), French sculpture in two glass-roofed courtyards, Northern European paintings (Vermeer’s Lacemaker and Astronomer, Rembrandt, Dürer), Islamic Art (2012 wing in the Cour Visconti), and the Napoleon III apartments. The connoisseur’s wing.
From the Pyramid hall, escalators rise into each wing. Signs are colour-coded — red for Denon, yellow for Sully, blue for Richelieu. Grab the free paper map at the information desk and photograph it; cell signal inside is patchy.
The 15 Must-See Masterpieces (Ranked by Crowd vs Payoff)
These are the works worth seeking out specifically. They are ordered roughly by fame, but the crowd-to-payoff ratio matters as much as the fame — some of the most rewarding pieces are three rooms over from the icons and almost empty.
1. Mona Lisa — Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-1519
Denon, 1st floor, Room 711. Behind two inches of bulletproof glass since 2019, with reinforced housing after the 2022 cake-smearing incident. Smaller than expected (77cm x 53cm); the typical queue is 50 people deep all day. Go at 9am sharp or after 7pm on a Friday Late and you will get within 10 metres for a clean photo.
2. Venus de Milo — Greek, c. 130-100 BC
Sully ground floor, Galerie des Antiques Grecques. Discovered in 1820 on the Aegean island of Milos already missing her arms — the original limbs have never been recovered, and the various reconstructions over the centuries have always been speculative. Often only 5-10 people around her, in a beautifully lit long gallery. Go all the way around; the back is as worked as the front.
3. Winged Victory of Samothrace — Greek, c. 190 BC
Top of the Daru Staircase, where Denon meets Sully. The single most photogenic moment in the museum: a headless winged figure landing on the prow of a ship, mid-stride, drapery billowing. Always crowded but the architectural setting (a wide staircase landing) means you can get close from multiple angles. Restored in 2014, now glowing pale marble.
4. Liberty Leading the People — Delacroix, 1830
Denon, Room 700. Restored 2024 with the soot of two centuries removed; the bare-breasted Marianne carrying the tricolore over the July Revolution barricades is now visibly brighter, and the lower left bodies considerably more legible. Iconic, political, and structurally enormous.
5. The Raft of the Medusa — Géricault, 1818-1819
Denon, Room 700. A real shipwreck, a 13-day ordeal, 147 people on a raft and 15 survivors — Géricault interviewed survivors and built a scale model in his studio. 5m x 7m of brown horror; one of the foundational works of Romanticism.
6. The Coronation of Napoleon — David, 1807
Denon, Room 702. 6 metres tall, 9 metres wide, every figure a portrait of someone identifiable. Napoleon crowning Josephine in Notre-Dame; the painting is theatre on canvas. Stand back to the opposite wall to see it whole.
7. The Lacemaker — Vermeer, c. 1670
Richelieu, 2nd floor. Tiny — 24cm x 21cm — and easy to walk past. One of only 34 Vermeers in existence. The bobbins are painted with single grains of light.
8. The Astronomer — Vermeer, 1668
Richelieu, near The Lacemaker. The pendant to the Frick’s Geographer; the figure consults a celestial globe by Hondius. Restful, scholarly, perfect.
9. Code of Hammurabi — Babylonian, c. 1754 BC
Richelieu ground floor, Mesopotamian gallery. A 2.25m basalt stele covered top-to-bottom in cuneiform — the oldest known surviving legal code, 282 laws, “an eye for an eye” in its earliest written form. Hammurabi receiving the laws from the sun god Shamash carved at the top.
10. Great Sphinx of Tanis — Egyptian, c. 2600 BC
Sully basement, Egyptian Antiquities. The largest sphinx outside Egypt — pink granite, 4.8 metres long, in a dramatic vaulted hall that was once the medieval Louvre’s wine cellar.
11. The Seated Scribe — Egyptian, c. 2620 BC
Sully, 1st floor Egyptian. Painted limestone, inlaid eyes of rock crystal and copper that follow you across the room. 4,600 years old and uncannily alert.
12. Lamassu — Assyrian, c. 720 BC
Richelieu ground floor, Khorsabad court. Two colossal winged bulls with human heads, palace guardians of Sargon II — five legs each so they look correct from front and side. Easy to underestimate from photos; in person, they are gods.
13. The Wedding at Cana — Veronese, 1563
Denon, Room 711, directly opposite the Mona Lisa — and almost completely overlooked because everyone has their back to it. 70m² of Venetian colour, 130 figures, the largest painting in the Louvre. Stolen by Napoleon from a Venetian convent in 1797. Turn around.
14. The Virgin of the Rocks — Leonardo da Vinci
Denon, Grande Galerie. Leonardo’s first version (the National Gallery in London has the second). Atmospheric, eerie, and you can stand within a metre of it. Often two or three people in front.
15. Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss — Canova, 1793
Denon ground floor, Italian Sculpture. Walk all the way around — the carving on the back of the wings and the underside of Cupid’s arm is breathtaking. The Apollon Gallery, the gilded long room with the French crown jewels, sits one floor up from here and was fully restored in 2020; both should be on your route.
Suggested Routes by Time Available
Pick a route based on how long you have, stick to it, and accept that you will skip things. Veterans of the museum agree on one rule: linger in fewer rooms rather than trying to glance at every gallery. Below are four templates, all starting at the Pyramid hub.
90-Minute Hit-and-Run
Brutal but covers the icons. Pyramid hub to escalator to Denon to Daru Staircase (Winged Victory) to Grande Galerie (Virgin of the Rocks, Italian Renaissance) to Mona Lisa room (Wedding at Cana opposite) to back into Salon Carré to French 19th-century galleries (Coronation, Raft of the Medusa, Liberty Leading the People) to exit through Sully past the Venus de Milo. Move at a steady walk, give the Mona Lisa five minutes, and you will hit ten of the fifteen masterpieces.
3-Hour Highlights
The recommended visit for most first-timers. Take the 90-minute route, then add the Apollon Gallery (crown jewels), Egyptian basement in Sully (Sphinx of Tanis, medieval Louvre foundations), Egyptian 1st floor (Seated Scribe), and Mesopotamian Richelieu (Code of Hammurabi, Lamassu). The sweet spot — enough for context, short enough that you still have legs.
6-Hour Deep Dive
Add Richelieu in full: Vermeer, Northern Renaissance (Dürer, Bosch, Memling), Rembrandt, French sculpture in Cour Marly and Cour Puget, Napoleon III apartments, and any current temporary exhibition. Build in a lunch break at Café Marly. Pair with /paris-museums-guide/ planning.
Multi-Visit Strategy with the Museum Pass
The civilised approach. Split the museum over two days using a Paris Museum Pass: Day 1 in Denon (Italian and French painting, Greek antiquities) for three hours; return Day 2 for Sully and Richelieu (Egyptian, Near Eastern, Northern painting, sculpture) for another three. You leave each visit alert rather than exhausted, and the second day reads better because you already know the building. Combine with /things-to-do-in-paris/ planning around Tuileries and Palais Royal between sessions.
Best Times to Visit: When to Go and When to Avoid
The Louvre is crowded by design. With 30,000 daily visitors funneled through one Pyramid entrance and three wings, the difference between a tolerable visit and a miserable one is timing. Here is what years of crowd data and visitor reports tell us.
Worst times
Wednesday and Sunday 11am to 3pm in any season — the day-trip coach crush. School holidays (French zones rotate, but Easter, Christmas and the July-August window are global peaks) double the queues. The first Sunday morning of each winter month (free entry) is a zoo. Any rainy day, when outdoor attractions empty into the museum. Skip these or arrive at the door 30 minutes before opening.
Best times
Wednesday and Friday at 9am opening, before tour groups assemble — you can have the Grande Galerie almost to yourself. Wednesday or Friday evening after 7pm; the Friday Late runs until 9:45pm and the last 90 minutes is the quietest the museum gets. The final hour before any day’s close (security starts moving people toward exits at 6pm on standard days, 9:30pm on Fridays) is consistently the lightest. Lunch hours, 12:30 to 1:30pm, are usually thinner than mid-morning because tour groups break for food.
Seasonal variation
November through February average 60% lower queues than July. Aim for late November or January if dates are flexible. Late August has a dip the week before French schools return. See /best-time-to-visit-paris/ for the city’s tourist rhythm.
Practical note: wear comfortable, broken-in shoes. The Louvre’s parquet and marble floors are hard, you will walk 4-7 kilometres, and there are few benches.
Entrance Options: Which Door to Use
Four entrances feed the same security check and ticket scan; all require the same timed ticket; the queue times differ wildly. Pick deliberately.
- Pyramid (main entrance, Cour Napoléon): the iconic glass pyramid. The longest queue, often 20-40 minutes even with a timed ticket because of security screening. Use if it’s your first visit and you want the photograph.
- Porte des Lions (Denon south face, river side): closed intermittently for staffing reasons but when open, the fastest entry in the building — you walk in next to the Venus de Milo. Check status on louvre.fr the morning of your visit.
- Carrousel du Louvre (underground from Rue de Rivoli or Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre metro): the shopping-mall route, now requiring the same timed ticket as the Pyramid. Moderate queue, sheltered from weather, and you skip the outdoor crowd. Best in winter rain.
- Passage Richelieu (off Rue de Rivoli, between the two pavilions): reserved for Paris Museum Pass holders, Friends of the Louvre members, and pre-booked guided tours. Almost no queue. The single best reason to buy the museum pass.
What’s Inside: The Eight Departments Explained
Behind the wing geography is the curatorial structure — eight departments, each with its own keepers, conservation labs and acquisition budget. Understanding them helps you choose intelligently when you cannot see everything.
Egyptian Antiquities (Sully)
The largest Egyptian collection outside Cairo. Sphinx of Tanis, Seated Scribe, Dendera Zodiac, the great sarcophagus halls. Unique for showing everyday objects — combs, sandals, beer jars — alongside the royal monumentality.
Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities (Denon, Sully)
Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Borghese Gladiator, the Sleeping Hermaphroditus. Trace Greek sculpture from archaic stiffness to Hellenistic motion. Etruscan bronzes and Roman portrait busts on the Denon ground floor.
Near Eastern Antiquities (Richelieu)
Mesopotamian, Persian and Levantine works. Code of Hammurabi, Lamassu winged bulls, Persepolis friezes, Phoenician sarcophagi. Often half-empty, which is criminal.
Islamic Art (Denon, 2012 wing)
The newest department, under a gold-and-glass wave roof in the Cour Visconti. Ottoman ceramics, Mamluk metalwork, the Saint-Louis Baptistery. 18,000 objects, North Africa to India. The most striking modern intervention in the museum.
Paintings (Denon, Sully, Richelieu)
The biggest department by traffic. Italian Renaissance and 19th-century French in Denon, French 14th-17th in Sully, Northern European in Richelieu. 7,500 paintings; the Grande Galerie alone is 460 metres long.
Sculptures (Denon, Richelieu)
Italian and Northern European in Denon (Michelangelo’s Slaves, Canova). French in Richelieu in two glass-roofed courtyards (Cour Marly, Cour Puget). The courtyards are some of the calmest spaces in the museum.
Decorative Arts (Richelieu)
Furniture, tapestries, ceramics, crown jewels in the Apollon Gallery, the Napoleon III apartments — a working royal interior untouched since Second Empire dignitaries dined there in the 1860s.
Prints and Drawings (rotating displays)
Leonardo notebooks, Dürer prints, Rembrandt etchings — light-sensitive works shown only in rotating exhibitions, typically two per year. Where you can stand 30cm from a Leonardo drawing with no glass.
Where to Eat at the Louvre
Eating inside the museum is functional rather than gastronomic, with one exception. Plan a meal break for any visit longer than three hours; blood sugar crash is the second-biggest source of Louvre regret after foot pain. Pair these with /paris-food-guide/ for proper meals before and after.
- Café Marly (Pyramid arcades, €25-40 mains): the only Louvre restaurant worth a dedicated stop. Terrace looks directly onto the Pyramid; food is brasserie standard but the view alone justifies the bill. Book ahead for lunch.
- Café Mollien (Denon, by the Mollien Staircase): sandwiches, salads, coffee, €10-15. Convenient mid-visit refuel without leaving the wing.
- Café Richelieu — Angelina (Richelieu, 1st floor): run by Paris’s legendary hot-chocolate house. The signature thick chocolate l’Africain is €9 and worth every cent on a winter visit. Pastries available.
- Café Mamie (Pyramid hall, near ticketing): casual, kid-friendly, hot food and salads. The default lunch for families.
- Comptoir du Louvre (Sully entrance): basic counter service, sandwiches and coffee. Cheapest in-museum option.
- Outside within 10 minutes’ walk: Le Fumoir (1st arr., classic bistro), Verjus (a 5-minute walk north, modern small plates), Café Pinson (Marais-style salads), and the Palais Royal arcade cafes for a Parisian sit-down between sights.
Photography, Bags, and Practical Rules
A quick run through the rules so nothing surprises you at security or in front of the Mona Lisa.
- Photography: allowed throughout, no flash, no tripods or monopods (selfie sticks technically banned but inconsistently enforced). Video allowed for personal use.
- Bags: nothing larger than 55cm x 35cm x 20cm. Free coat and bag check in the Pyramid hall — use it; you do not want to carry a backpack for four hours.
- Strollers and wheelchairs: permitted everywhere with lift access; ask at the information desk for a wheelchair loan (free).
- Connectivity: cell signal is poor in the basement and inner galleries. Free museum WiFi (Louvre-Visite) works in main spaces but is slow.
- Restrooms: scarcer than you would expect — biggest are by the Mona Lisa room and in the Pyramid hall. Use them when you see them.
- Audio guide: €5 rental, multilingual (French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin). The official Louvre app is now better — download it free before you arrive over hotel WiFi.
- Cloakroom: umbrellas, helmets and oversized coats must be checked. Liquids over 1.5L not permitted.
- Food and drink: water in sealed bottles allowed in galleries; eating only in cafés and dedicated rest areas.
Special Programs & After-Hours
Beyond the standard daytime visit, the Louvre runs a programme of after-hours and satellite experiences that most casual visitors miss.
Louvre Lens
The northern France satellite, 90 minutes by TGV from Gare du Nord. A rotating 250 masterpieces in a single chronological gallery, free entry. A worthy /day-trips-from-paris/ alternative.
Petite Galerie
Off the Sully entrance, a small space for younger visitors with thematic exhibitions and hands-on workshops. Excellent for /paris-with-kids/ trips.
Private night tours
Localers and Context Travel run small private tours after public hours for €200-450 per person. Books out a month ahead.
Friday Late programming
Concerts, talks and pop-up curator tours on Friday evenings, included in standard entry. Check louvre.fr the week before.
Auditorium du Louvre
Basement concert and lecture series — chamber music, films, art history talks — separately ticketed and cheap. See /where-to-stay-in-paris/ for nearby 1st arrondissement hotels.
Free children’s workshops
During French school holidays, free workshops for kids 4-12 — mostly in French with occasional English sessions. Book through louvre.fr.
Combining the Louvre with Other Attractions
The Louvre sits at the heart of central Paris and pairs naturally with several adjacent sights. Build a half-day or full-day combination rather than treating it as a standalone.
- Tuileries Garden (immediately west of the Pyramid): the great Le Nôtre garden running between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde. Free, with statues by Maillol and Rodin, and a chair-and-fountain pause that revives any post-museum legs.
- Place Vendôme (5 minutes north): the great octagonal square of jewellers and luxury hotels — Napoleon’s column at its centre.
- Palais Royal courtyards (5 minutes north): the colonnaded gardens behind the Comédie-Française, with the famous Buren columns in the front court. Free, photogenic, and home to arcade shops worth a 30-minute browse.
- Musée d’Orsay (10 minutes’ walk south across the Pont du Carrousel): impressionist masterworks. Many visitors do Louvre morning, Orsay afternoon — manageable but tiring. The Paris Museum Pass covers both.
- Sainte-Chapelle (15 minutes east on the Île de la Cité): the 13th-century stained-glass chapel built by Saint Louis. See /sainte-chapelle-conciergerie/ for full guide. Paired well with a morning Louvre and a sunlit afternoon chapel visit.
- Pont des Arts and Institut de France: cross the footbridge directly behind Denon for a sweeping view back at the Louvre façade — one of the best free photographs in Paris.
See our pillar guide to Paris attractions for context, and combine with /paris-walking-tours/ or /things-to-do-in-paris/. The Louvre district is walkable; see /getting-around-paris/ and /paris-neighborhoods-guide/. Cluster siblings: /eiffel-tower-guide/, /notre-dame-paris-guide/, /sacre-coeur-montmartre-guide/, /arc-de-triomphe-guide/, /paris-catacombs-guide/, /disneyland-paris-guide/.
FAQ
How much are Louvre tickets in 2026?
The standard adult ticket is €30 via louvre.fr for a timed 30-minute entry slot. Non-EU youth aged 18-25 pay €22, the Friday Late ticket is €15 for 18-25 year olds, and under-18s plus EU residents under 26 enter free (but still need a reservation). Guided skip-the-line tours range €90-150 including entry.
Is the Louvre free for anyone?
Yes. Under-18s worldwide and EU residents under 26 enter free year-round. Everyone gets free entry on the first Saturday evening of each month (6-9:45pm) and on 14 July (Bastille Day). Disabled visitors plus one companion enter free with documentation. Teachers, journalists, art professionals and Louvre members also qualify.
How long does it take to see the Louvre?
Realistically, plan 3 hours for a good highlights visit, 6 hours for a thorough single-day visit, or two 3-hour sessions across two days for a comfortable deep dive. A 90-minute hit-and-run is possible if you stick rigorously to Denon. Seeing “everything” would take roughly 3 months of full days.
What time is best to visit the Louvre?
Wednesday or Friday at 9am opening, or Wednesday/Friday evening from 7pm onwards (Friday is open until 9:45pm). Avoid 11am-3pm on weekends and any day in school holidays. November to February average 60% smaller queues than July and August.
Can you see the Mona Lisa for free?
Only if you qualify for free entry overall — the Mona Lisa is included in standard admission, with no separate ticket. The free Saturday evening of each month is the cheapest route to seeing her, though the queue in the Mona Lisa room can be heavy that night.
Is the Louvre worth the queue?
Yes, but only with a timed ticket and a plan. Walking up cold means waiting in line, missing the best works, and leaving exhausted. With a 9am Wednesday slot and a route from this guide, the Louvre is one of the great cultural experiences of any trip to Paris.
Can you take photos in the Louvre?
Yes — photography is allowed throughout for personal use. No flash, no tripods, no selfie sticks. Video for personal use is also fine. A small number of temporary exhibitions ban photography; these are signposted at the gallery entrance.
What should I skip at the Louvre?
On a first short visit, skip Decorative Arts (Richelieu first floor furniture), Prints and Drawings (often closed anyway), and large stretches of Italian Renaissance beyond the Mona Lisa room. Skip 19th-century European painting outside the Delacroix/Géricault corridor. Save these for a second visit; on day one, see the icons and the antiquities.
The Louvre rewards a return visit more than any museum on Earth. Treat your first trip as reconnaissance, your second as the real visit. Cross-reference /plan-trip-to-paris/, /romantic-paris/ or /paris-shopping-guide/ for the rest of the day, /paris-nightlife-guide/ for the evening.