Louvre Museum with Audio Guide

Louvre Museum is probably the world's greatest and most famous museum with a global reputation. “Venus de Milo,” “Winged Victory of Samothrace,” and Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” are the stars, but there are literally thousands and thousands of other treasures of human civilization from all over the world. The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, and received about 10 million visitors per year. It has over 38,000 artefacts in eight specific departments and pretty well organized. We purchased the Museum Pass, so no problem with ticketing, but once we reached the Pyramid Gate, there was a long queue for Security. Anyway the wait was not much and after we picked up the leaflet with layout plan, we thought of picking up Audio Guide. Again there was lot of queue and it took some time to pick up the Audio Guide. Though this is our third visit, we planned what to see as the collection is so huge and diverse that it’s impossible to finish the visit in one day! So the visit must be planned in advance for a meaningful appreciation of the artifacts. Note that there are Skip the Line etc. tickets, but finally the security line is same. I understand entering through the Carousels is easier, but we haven’t tried this option. Museum building itself is stunningly beautiful. Obviously if you are in Paris and museum lover, no way you can think of missing this world famous museum. You will be able to discover new things every time you visit this magnificent museum.

We visited the Louvre today at about 11am and did an introductory tour of the main masterpieces of the Louvre. We definitely did not leave enough time to get in arriving only 30 minutes before our tour. Also another in our group recommended entering via the Richelou building. We will definitely do this next time. The introductory tour was very interesting and gave a very short introduction to this immense museum. We went with our two kids, 9 & 7, and the tour helped to keep them engaged. Once it was over we grabbed something to eat and then headed back in with audio guides. We only got two for the family and this seemed to work ok to keep us all informed and helped us navigate to the different things we wanted to see. Occasionally the kids would beg to leave and as we were walking towards an exit they would sprint off fascinated by something new. In all we ended up there for 7 hours!! I did not expect to be there that long and thought the kids would loose interest much earlier so every additional art treasure was a bonus ontop of the introductory tour. Very much worth going and taking the kids.

Mona Lisa was moved to top= 5th floor. Museum Pass was worthless here. We were shuttled up and around for hours until we went by the Mona Lisa on the 5th floor. Want an audioguide or pamplet? Get out of line and start over. After hrs. got through to see Mona Lisa with canvas covered in glass, all contained in a big glass/bullet proof box. About 20-30 people inside the roped area for 2-3 minutes. Then the guards, asked you to leave, then shouted, then physically shoved you out. We are free! The Venus de Milo= an equally impressive artifact, had one elderly lady playing on her cell phone on a chair in the back of the room. Could have jumped the cord and touched, spit or took it to the ground and she would not notice. I think this statue is a mold used to make the actual. Why was it not guarded like "David" or "The Thinker" in Florence, Italy? Other nice things here, but too tired after the many hour long trip to the 5th floor to see Mona. Try to see the rest without Mona and you could have a good time. She was not worth it anyhow and wrecked my trip to the famous museum = Louvre.