Strategies for visiting the Louvre
Written: Dec 01 '99 (Updated May 18 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: one of the best museums in the world
Cons: huge, popular works are crowded
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| jaseroque's Full Review: Musée du Louvre |
The Louvre is one of the best, and largest, museums in the world. How can you approach such a huge collection of art and history? Here is my strategy:
1) Get there EARLY in the morning, before the big crowds hit. You can take the secret entrance reviewed at another epinions site to avoid the line. You can also get tickets online and avoid the line that way. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, and is free on the first Sunday of each month. It is always free for children under 18. The Louvre's website is http://www.louvre.fr and the ticket website is http://www.louvre.fr/anglais/billets/billet_f.htm. Plan to spend half a day here... longer and your brain or body will collapse.
2) See the big sites. On your first visit to the Louvre, see the big, popular works of art. The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory. These are easy to find for two reasons: a) There are arrows with pictograms of these three works on the walls, so you just have to follow the signs; and b) There will be a huge crowd -- almost a constant flow of people -- going from one to the other. Just join the crowd.
3) Pick a Category. When you have seen the "must-sees" of the Louvre, relax, pick a category, and avoid the crowds if you wish. Remember, there is NO WAY you can see the whole museum. It is humanly impossible to visit the entire museum at one sitting. I have been there seven or eight times and have not seen a third of it. So... look at your map and pick a series of rooms you are interested in visiting in depth. Plan an hour for about 5 rooms. In each room there will be a rack of big plastic cards in several languages that tell you about the exhibits, use these for better understanding of what you're seeing. Take your time -- there's a lot to absorb here.
4) My favorite exhibits. (Note: each one of these takes 1-2 hours to see thoroughly!):
a) Pre classical Greek and Etruscan -- there is pottery here that is five thousand years old. I'll give you a second to let that sink in.
b) Egyptian -- I'm a sucker for mummies and hieroglyphics.
c) History of the Louvre and the Medieval Louvre -- visit the medieval castle that is still present in the basement of the museum! I love this part, it is dark and restful after seeing lots of paintings, and it is not as crammed with information. You can see the fortifications, the walls, and the moat, including all the junk people threw in the moat five hundred years ago.
d) Code of Hammurabi and early alphabets. I saw this for the first time in the summer of 1998 and was thrilled. I really enjoyed the middle eastern sculptures and history, and really brushed up on my history of the fertile crescent.
e) 18th and 19th century French paintings. There are rooms and rooms of magnificent French paintings (you'll pass through these on your way to the Mona Lisa). These are wonderful and many are famous, so take advantage of the benches and sit in one of these rooms and study these paintings. My eyes glaze over faster on paintings than on anything else, so I can't spend as long in the painting rooms as in the history or sculpture rooms.
5) Put your camera away. Don't bother taking many pictures... they won't turn out very well and you can buy postcards of your favorite works at the end of the day. These postcards will look much better than your own pictures. See the museum through your own eyes, not through the camera lens, or through a photo album of fuzzy pictures months later.
6) Leave before you collapse. I can only take about 4 hours of the Louvre before my brain explodes and my feet seize up. Don't feel bad if you don't see all you set out to see... more for next time!
7) For the other half of the day, do something outside. Take a walk in the Tuileries, eat a picnic lunch, visit the Eiffel Tower, go to Notre Dame and admire the facade, or stroll along the Seine and look at the booksellers. Too much museuming in one day is exhausting -- better to vary it with something totally different.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jaseroque
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Location: California
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