Oh, the Louvre Paris; the magical building that has played such an amazing role throughout Paris’s long history; right through Modern-day society. The Louvre Museum Paris is one of the most visited places in the city; over 9 million visitors wander through the life-size storybook that is the Louvre.

Despite its elegant displays, it wasn’t always a world-class art gallery, the Louvre has had many roles throughout history. Originally built in 1190 as a fortress around the first city of Paris to protect them from Viking raids. Then it was transformed into a royal palace for the French Monarchy; soon after they decided it was too small and moved to the Palace of Versailles. Transformed once again with just over 500 paintings into the Louvre museum Pairs. For centuries the Monarch’s, Kings, Emperors or whoever was in power took it upon themselves to add or extended to the Louvre and its collections.

Napoleon Bonaparte and the Louvre Paris

During his successful military campaigns all over the empire, he stole works of art from other countries claiming them for himself. As an avid art collector, he added over 5000 pieces to the Louvre. He decided he would like the Museum to represent himself and renamed it, Musee Napoleon. After his abdication; most of the artwork that he had “acquired” was returned to their original countries. Napoleon took a liking to the Famous Mona Lisa who he hung in his private bedroom above his bed.   

Some things you might not have known about The Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous piece, millions of people from all around the world flock to the Louvre to see this mysterious woman. Not to wreck the experience for you but the Mona Lisa is a lot smaller than you would expect, keep that in mind to avoid disappointment!

• She is about the size of an A2 piece of paper
• There is a theory that her eyes follow you when you move left and right, It is seriously creepy
• Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by a disgruntled employee she was missing for 2 years. His plan was to have it replicated, and sell it to an unsuspecting buyer.
• There have been many attacks on her the most notable being; someone throwing acid on it, someone pelted a rock at it, people tried to spray paint it. If you look close enough you can see the small damages on the famous painting.
• It is said that the Mona Lisa is literally priceless; no insurance company will insure her as they have no idea what to price to insure her for.
• She is heavily guarded ALL the time, She is set behind bullet-proof glass at a constant temperature all year round. There are 2 bodyguards who keep the thousands of visitors at bay behind the designated ropes. DO NOT TRY AND GET CLOSER…VERY BAD IDEA!

The Louvre Paris is so much more than just Mona Lisa

The Louvre Paris is home to some of the most incredible artworks in history; the galleries range from decorative arts, an entire section on Egyptian artefacts, drawings, and an impressive 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century. A large portion of the Louvre is dedicated to some of the greatest artists of all time some of those include Raphael, Michelangelo, the Great Dutch artist Rembrandt and so many more.

Did you know?

The Museum is home to around 380,000 pieces in total; they are not all on display at one time. If you looked at each piece for 1 min each; without a break, it would take 9 months to look at the whole collection.

The Louvre museum Paris has 18km of corridors and has a 3km perimeter; which to put it in perspective is about the size of 15 football fields.

There are 3 main wings with 7 departments and the best news is it’s all colour coded!! Follow the colours on your map to the pieces you want to see, it is very well set out.

Tickets to the Louvre Museum Paris

Do yourself a favour and PRE PURCHASE your tickets; better yet splash the cash and get Skip the line tickets. This is the most visited museum in the world; with over 15,000 visitors a day in peak time.

On the official website, the tickets are 17 Euro; tickets are also available on websites such as Expedia or Viator. If you choose to buy them at the Louvre they will be 15 Euro per person. They offer guided tours, audio tours or you can just wander around yourself. Everything is very well signed and explained; you can read it for yourself and you don’t have to listen to the stuff you’re not interested in. The tickets are one time only for a specific time and date, if you leave the museum you CANNOT renter.

Metro Stop to get off at: Palais-Royal Musee Du Louvre (line 1 and 7) or Pyramides (line14)

Arc De Triomphe Du Carrousel

This beautiful arch was built between 1806 and 1808; this was much faster in comparison to the 30 years of the Arc De Triomphe. On the top of the Arch is a statue of a bronze horseman; Napoleon actually stole the original one from St Marks Basilica in Venice. After Napoleon’s reign was over the original statue was returned to Venice, and this replica was placed on top of the Arch.

Glass Pyramid – Entrance to Louvre Museum Paris

• Known by many Parisians; as the scar on the face of Paris. This is due to its ultra-modern design; clearly a bit different from the incredible architecture of the Louvre.
• There is an underground mirrored pyramid to match the one on the surface. It was built as the original entrance couldn’t handle the number of people coming through.
• The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments, reaches a height of 21.6 meters.
• Made up of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments.
• It is unclear exactly how many panes of glass there is; it is said that there is 666; the official book says 673 to deter away myths about Satan-worshipping
• They use rock climbers to clean the windows
• According to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci code; the Holy Grail or Mary Magdalene’s body, is buried beneath the glass pyramid.

Art lover or not the Louvre in Paris should be on everyone’s list. It is almost a right of passage to visit the creepy-eyed Mona Lisa however while you are there be sure to stop; take a minute to really appreciate the beauty and history of such a magnificent real-life storybook that is the Louvre Museum Paris.