The Louvre Museum is one of the world’s largest and most famous museums in Paris, France.
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, a historic fortress and royal residence dating back to the 12th century.
The Louvre Museum in Paris was established in 1793 and has since grown to house a vast collection of art and artifacts spanning various periods and cultures.
More than 30,000 tourists line up to enter The Louvre daily, adding up to around 10 million visitors annually from around the world.
Some famous works displayed at the Louvre Museum include the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, and the Code of Hammurabi.
The museum’s collection includes ancient Egyptian artifacts, Greek and Roman sculptures, European paintings, and Islamic art.
This article covers everything you must know before booking Louvre Museum tickets.
Top Louvre Museum Tickets
# Louvre Museum tickets
# Louvre Museum guided tour
# Louvre tour for families with kids
Table of contents
- What to expect at the Louvre Museum
- Where to buy tickets
- Why avoid buying Louvre tickets at the venue
- How do online ticket works
- Cost of Louvre Museum tickets
- Louvre Museum tickets
- How to reach Louvre Museum
- Opening hours of Louvre Museum
- How long does the museum take
- Best time to visit Louvre Museum
- Must see at The Louvre
- Louvre Museum’s audio guide
- Louvre entrances
- Louvre Museum map
- Food and drinks
- FAQs about the Louvre Museum
What to expect at the Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum takes you back to the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greek eras, introducing you to antiquities and masterpieces by artists such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and many other renowned artists.
See the paintings of The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci, The Raft Of The Medusa by Théodore Géricault, and The Wedding Feast At Cana by Paolo Veronese, to name a few.
Check out sculptures of The Venus De Milo, Sleeping Hermaphroditus, The Winged Victory Of Samothrace, The Dying Slave and The Rebellious Slave by Michelangelo.
Even the personal collections of French kings are on display.
The Louvre Museum is the world’s best art museum. Tourists can choose from many types of Louvre Museum tickets.
Where to buy tickets
Tickets for the Louvre Museum can be purchased online or at the venue.
Online ticket prices tend to be cheaper than tickets at the attraction.
Booking online also helps you get exclusive discounts and offers.
When you buy online, you can avoid the long queues at the ticket counters.
When you book early, you also get your preferred time slot
During peak days tickets may sell out. Booking early helps avoid last-minute disappointments.
Why avoid buying Louvre tickets at the venue
Visitors can buy their Louvre tickets at the venue or purchase them online in advance.
Check out this video by France 24, a French public broadcast service, to understand why buying Louvre Museum tickets in advance is much recommended.
On average, more than 30,000 tourists visit The Louvre Museum in Paris.
This crowd results in long lines (see pic below) outside the Louvre Glass Pyramid.
These lines are NOT for buying the ticket but for security screening.
When you haven’t already bought Skip the Line Louvre tickets, you join this line at the end and wait your turn for the security check.
During peak season (June, July, and August), these lines wind all along the Louvre courtyard, and the waiting time can even go up to three hours.
What makes it worse is that this waiting is out in the sun (and lines are longest during summer!)
During non-peak months, this waiting time is around 30 minutes.
Once you clear the security, you are inside the air-conditioned Louvre Glass Pyramid.
Now you must stand in line at the ticketing counter to buy your Louvre Museum ticket. Thankfully, this second line moves fast.
Once you have paid the entrance fee and bought your tickets, you can enter The Louvre Museum.
How do online ticket works
Visit the booking page for the Louvre Museum.
Select the number of tickets, preferred date, and time slot, and buy the tickets immediately.
Once you complete the booking process, the tickets will be mailed to you.
There is no need to get printouts of the ticket.
On the day of your visit, walk right past the queue, straight to the guard at the front of the Louvre Glass Pyramid entrance.
Look for the sign ‘visitors with tickets’, which in French should read ‘Avec Billet.’
The guard will check your Louvre Paris ticket on your mobile and ask you to present a valid photo ID, without which you won’t be allowed inside the museum.
Once you get the all-clear, the guard will merge you into the security check line inside the glass pyramid.
Cost of Louvre Museum tickets
A regular skip-the-line ticket to the Louvre Museum costs €20 for all visitors aged 18 years and above.
The guided tour ticket for adults aged 18 years and above is priced at €75, while children in the age group of 10 and 17 years can get the same ticket at €55.
Tickets for a family tour cost €450 per group for up to five family members.
Louvre Museum tickets
If you plan to visit the Louvre Museum, we have a few tickets to suggest to you.
You can book skip-the-line tickets if you’re on a tight budget and get admission to Eugène Delacroix Museum.
Go on a guided tour and learn interesting facts about the art museum.
Families can consider buying tickets for a family tour for a more entertaining and educational tour.
Skip The Line Louvre tickets
Image: Colnect.com
The Louvre Skip The Line tickets are the cheapest and the most popular way to enter the art museum.
They get you to access both the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions.
These tickets also get you access to Musée Delacroix on the day of your Louvre visit.
Adult Ticket (18+ years): €20
Louvre Museum guided tour tickets
There are many benefits to hiring an art expert guide to take you around The Louvre.
– You don’t waste your time trying to find the exhibits.
– You don’t miss out on any of the masterpieces at The Louvre Museum.
– Expert guides share in-depth knowledge, exciting stories, anecdotes, etc. about the artwork.
If you book this guided tour of Louvre, you skip the lines and avoid all the crowd.
In two hours, the guide takes you on a smart route and shows you the masterpieces and the underrated gems of The Louvre.
You can book the Louvre Museum Skip-the-Ticket-Line 10 am or the 2 pm guided tour.
Ticket Prices
Adult Ticket (18+ years): €75
Child Ticket (10 to 17 years): €55
If you want a more extended tour, check out this similar guided tour of the Louvre.
Louvre tour for families with kids
This two-hour Louvre Museum tour is customized for kids and adults, and a special children’s guide will host your family.
This highly-rated tour starts with the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and then goes on to other exhibits that keep the kids excited.
Since this is a skip-the-line ticket, you only wait for approximately 10 to 20 minutes at the security checks.
Tour Cost: €450 per group up to 5 family members
Visual Story: 16 must-know tips before visiting Louvre Museum
If you want an exclusive art expert to guide you and prefer complete control over your art museum tour, you must opt for a private tour of the Louvre Museum.
Some art lovers prefer to book the guided tour of the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay. And some tourists are confused between the two. If you aren’t sure which Parisian art gallery you want to visit, check out our analysis – Louvre Museum or Musee d’Orsay.
How to reach Louvre Museum
Grand Louvre is located next to the Seine River in central Paris.
Address: Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris – France. Get Directions
You can get to the museum by metro, bus or car.
By Metro
Board Metro Lines 1 or 7 and get down at the Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre station, or board Line 14 and get down at Pyramids Metro station.
Once you get off at the stations, follow the crowd, and you can reach the museum in less than two minutes.
By Bus
Depending on where you are starting, you can also board bus routes 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, or 95.
If you are taking the famous Batobus, ask for the “Louvre” stop.
By Car
If you’re traveling by car, turn on Google Maps and get started.
There are a few car parking lots near the museum to park vehicles.
Some tourists visit the Eiffel Tower and Louvre Museum on the same day. If you also plan to do the same, follow the links for directions:
– From Eiffel Tower to the Louvre Museum
– From Louvre Museum to Eiffel Tower
Opening hours of Louvre Museum
From Wednesday to Monday, the Louvre Museum opens at 9 am.
On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, the Parisian Art Museum closes at 6 pm, and on Friday, it closes at 9.45 pm.
On Tuesday, the Louvre Museum remains closed.
| Day of the week | Timings |
| Monday | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Thursday | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Friday | 9 am to 9.45 pm |
| Saturday | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Sunday | 9 am to 6 pm |
Depending on the day, Louvre Museum employees start closing the rooms.
The last entry is one hour before closing, and rooms are cleared 30 minutes before closing.
The Louvre Museum is closed on 1 January, 1 May, and 25 December.
Tip: Louvre’s ticketing office also opens at 9 am, but we suggest you buy Louvre tickets online to avoid the long lines.
How long does the museum take
At the Louvre Museum, visitors need at least 3 hours to explore masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, etc.
Tourists who have been to the Louvre multiple times say that art fatigue sets in after approximately 2 to 3 hours of roaming around.
If you plan to stay longer, take a break at one of the many restaurants in the art museum.
When you buy your museum ticket online, you can finish your tour of The Louvre sooner because you don’t waste time in the ticket counter lines.
There are 380,000 artifacts in the Louvre Museum, of which 35,000 pieces are on display. If you want to see all the 35,000 items on display for at least 30 seconds, you will need 36 days. More such Louvre Museum facts.
Best time to visit Louvre Museum
The best time to visit the Louvre art museum is after 3 pm.
Most guidebooks and websites recommend users land up early at 9 am to avoid the crowd at the museum.
So, it is better to avoid a morning visit to The Louvre.
On Fridays, the museum is open till 9.45 pm, and by 6 pm, all group and school tours are dispersed, so you can consider visiting after 6 pm for a more peaceful experience.
Seasoned art enthusiasts prefer to visit the Louvre Museum at night.
When NOT to visit Louvre Museum
Musee d’ Orsay is just 1.5 kms (.9 miles) from the Louvre Museum, displays French art from 1848 to 1914, and gets more than 8,000 tourists daily.
It is closed on Mondays and thus diverts all the traffic towards the Louvre Museum.
The additional tourists mean longer waiting lines and bigger crowds.
That’s why staying away from Musee Du Louvre on Mondays makes sense.
Also, we don’t recommend visiting the Louvre Museum on weekends.
Thirty percent of all tourists visiting the Louvre Museum are residents of Paris.
Since they work weekdays, they line up at the museum on weekends.
The best time to photograph Louvre Museum Pyramid is Tuesday when the museum is closed. If you visit after dark, you will only find locals and some tourists hanging around the beautifully lit-up glass pyramid.
Must see at The Louvre
There are many exhibits to see at The Louvre – 35,000 items in total.
To spend at least 30 seconds in front of each exhibit, you will need to spend at least 36 days in The Louvre.
Before we list out the Louvre must-see items, explain how the exhibits are classified and laid out in The Louvre.
Classification of items
The exhibits in The Louvre Museum, Paris, are divided into eight different departments depending on the artwork/exhibit.
1. Paintings
2. Egyptian Antiquities
3. Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities
4. Near Eastern Antiquities
5. Sculptures
6. Decorative Arts
7. Islamic Art
8. Prints and Drawings
Every exhibit at The Louvre belongs to one of the above departments.
What to see in The Louvre Museum
The exhibits belonging to these eight categories are displayed across Louvre Museum’s three wings – Sully, Richelieu, and Denon.
Each of these wings has more than 70 rooms.
Sully Wing
The Sully Wing is the oldest part of the Musée du Louvre.
In Sully Wing, you can see remnants of the medieval castle of the Louvre and learn about its history.
On the ground floor of this Wing, you will find one of the most beautiful sculptures in the Louvre – Venus of Milo.
Another must-visit artwork in this wing is the erotic Turkish Bath, painted in the late eighteenth century by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
One of the sculptures in the Sully Wing proves that artists can also pull a cruel joke.
Go and see ‘Sleeping Hermaphrodite’ in Room 17 of Sully Wing to know what we mean.
Don’t miss out on the 12-ton Great Sphinx of Tanis.
This Sphinx was sculpted sometime between 2,600 and 1,900 B.C. and has a lion’s body and a human head.
Richelieu Wing
You can see the Louvre in all its glory in the Richelieu Wing.
On the first floor of this wing, you get to see the highly decorated Napoleon III apartments – as they were when he lived there.
Don’t miss out on Vermeer’s ‘The Astronomer’ and ‘The Lacemaker.’
The four Rembrandt self-portraits are also on display in this wing.
If you are into decorative arts, visit the first floor for a treat of clocks, furniture, chinaware, tapestries, showpieces, etc.
Denon Wing
Denon Wing attracts the most number of tourists at the Louvre Paris.
After all, it houses the most famous works of the Louvre Museum – Mona Lisa, Winged Victory of Samothrace, etc. Find out everything about Mona Lisa at Louvre Museum
Some of the most exquisite French paintings are available in the Denon Wing.
Don’t miss Jacques-Louis David’s ‘The Coronation of Napoleon’ and Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People.’
The two sculptures in this wing, which we highly recommend, are ‘Psyche Revived by the Kiss of Love’ by Antonio Canova and ‘Dying Slave’ by Michelangelo.
Fun Read: When the Louvre Museum statues talked back
Tuileries Gardens
Most visitors to the Louvre Museum also visit the Tuileries Garden, located between the museum and the Place de la Concorde.
Some tourists come in early and spend time at the Tuileries Garden before walking to the Louvre Museum.
Tuileries Garden opens for the public at 7 am all through the year.
From the last Sunday in September to the last Saturday in March, the garden closes at 7.30 pm.
From the last Sunday in March to the last Saturday in September, the garden closes at 9 pm.
The garden opens from 7 am to 11 pm every day in June, July, and August.
The evacuation of the public begins 30 minutes before closing time.
Louvre Museum’s audio guide
If you don’t want to spend the extra money on a Louvre guided tour, the next best thing is to book an audio guide.
To get a sense of how this Louvre-Nintendo audio guide works, check out this video below.
Using the audio guide on the New Nintendo 3DS, visitors can learn about the palace, artworks, and their history.
Louvre’s audio guide also uses geo-location to direct you to the most relevant information about the artworks.
It is available in 9 languages – English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.
The audio guides are available for rent for €5 per person at the museum.
Louvre entrances
The Louvre has four entrances – the Pyramid entrance, the Porte des Lions entrance, the Carrousel entrance, and the Porte de Richelieu entrance.
Each of them serves a different purpose.
Louvre Pyramid entrance
The entrance through the glass Pyramid is the main entrance to Louvre Paris. It is also known as Le Pyramide entrance.
This 21-meter-high glass Louvre pyramid makes for great photographs, so most tourists prefer to enter from here.
Architect IM Pei built this Louvre glass pyramid.
Pei chose glass because he wanted it to be least intrusive and wanted the light to enter the foyer below. Directions to Pyramid Entrance
Louvre Carrousel entrance
If you reach the museum by Metro, it is best to get there from the Louvre Carrousel entrance.
The Carrousel du Louvre is an underground shopping complex situated next to The Louvre.
The -2 floor of this shopping complex has an entrance to the Louvre.
Once you have taken two sets of escalators to go down to the -2 floor, walk past the line of underground shops, and you will spot the inverted pyramid.
Look around, and you can’t miss the Carrousel entrance to Louvre.
This Louvre Museum entrance is also known as ‘the mall entrance to the Louvre’ and ‘inverted Pyramid entrance.’
Interestingly, this doorway also leads to the same part of The Louvre Museum as the Pyramid entrance. Directions to Louvre Carrousel entrance
Tip: On Lines 1 and 7, the Metro stop for Louvre Museum is ‘Palais Royale-Musee du Louvre.’
Porte De Richelieu entrance
If you are on a group tour or hold an annual membership pass to the Louvre Museum, you can use the Porte De Richelieu entrance.
As an individual ticket holder or a group of family members or friends, you can’t use this entry.
This entrance is between the Louvre courtyard (the area with the glass pyramid) and Rue de Rivoli Street. Directions to Porte de Richelieu entrance
Porte des Lions entrance
While researching Louvre entrances, you may have encountered many visitors suggesting Porte des Lions.
Until mid-2016, this access to the Louvre was a great way to beat the crowd. However, now, it is closed.
Paris being Paris, this may open again.
If you want to check this entryway, it shouldn’t take long because it is near the Pyramid entrance.
Look for the first set of Lions (closest to the glass Pyramid) that mark the entrance to the museum. Directions to Portes Des Lions
Louvre Museum map
The trick is to stay aware of the masterpieces.
If you have booked a guided tour of The Louvre, you don’t need the Louvre’s map.
But if you are on your own, we suggest you carry Louvre’s floor plan.
Floor plan of Louvre’s reception and exhibitions area. This is the -2 basement floor. Follow this link to download the map of all the museum floors.
Besides helping you locate the exhibits, the Louvre Museum map will also help you spot visitor services such as restrooms, cafes, souvenir shops, visitor assistance booths, etc.
Food and drinks
Visits to The Louvre Museum can be tiring – there is so much to see and so little time.
So, we recommend regular snack breaks in between to keep your energies high.
There are 15 restaurants and cafes in the Louvre Paris.
If you are looking for a sit, relax, and eat experience, opt for one of the three restaurants given below:
1. The Bistrot Benoit
Location: Under the Pyramid, Hall Napoléon
Opening Hours: Breakfast is available from 9 am to 11:30 am and lunch from 11:30 am to 5 pm. On Wednesdays and Fridays, it is open till 9:45 pm
2. The Café Marly
Location: Cour Napoléon
Opening Hours: Open daily from 8 am to 2 am
3. The Café Richelieu-Angelina
Location: Richelieu wing, 1st floor Between the Napoleon III Apartments and Decorative Arts galleries.
Opening Hours: 10 am to 4:45 pm and until 6:30 pm on Wednesday and Friday. In July and August, it is open till 8:30 pm
If you want to grab a quick bite and move on, we recommend the following cafes as well –
1. Café Mollien on the first floor of Denon Wing
2. The Comptoir du Louvre, located below the Pyramid
3. Denon and Richelieu takeaway counters located in the mezzanine entrances to the Denon and Richelieu wings
FAQs about the Louvre Museum
Here are a few questions visitors usually ask before visiting the Louvre Museum.
The Louvre Museum is open on most French public holidays, including Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Pentecost Monday, Bastille Day, Assumption Day, All Saints’ Day, and 1918 Armistice. On such holidays, irrespective of the day, the Louvre Museum opens at 9 am and closes at 6 pm (except Friday).
On 14 July, the French National holiday celebrating the storming of the Bastille, the Louvre Museum allows everybody free entry. During the lean period of October to March, every first Sunday of the month is a free entry day. EU residents under 26, non-EU residents under 18, disabled visitors and the person accompanying them, and jobseekers with a valid ID are also eligible for free admission.
Guests can take photos and videos of the permanent collections and not of temporary collections. Selfie sticks, flash, and lighting are strictly prohibited.
Yes, locker facility is available at the museum.
No! Once a visitor makes an exit, he/she won’t get re-entry.
Source
# Louvre.fr
# Wikipedia.org
# Britannica.com
# Tripadvisor.com
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