Louvre Museum - Because Paris is not only the Eiffel Tower

If there is a “must visit” place for any first timers in Paris aside from Eiffel Tower that is Louvre Museum. It rivals the Eiffel Tower in terms of importance in French’s tourism industry and history if I may say so.

According to our Seine River tour guide, if you’d spend 3 seconds looking on each art piece in Louvre it will take you 33 days to see them all. That is how massive Louvre’s collections.

Taking the Metro, we arrived at 8:30 am and waited outside the glass pyramid for the gate to open; yup, that is one of the entrances. There is a separate queue for those who have Paris Museum Pass (PMP) but all these queues are for security check only. Once inside there is no need to acquire or buy a ticket, just show your PMP and off you go to Mona Lisa, LOL.

Mona Lisa

Guided Tour inside the Mona Lisa room

After securing a free map we followed throngs of early birds racing towards the location of Mona Lisa. We were lucky that the crowds haven’t arrived yet thus we had an unobstructed view of Louvre’s biggest attraction. I have been informed that Mona Lisa has been transferred to this room recently. By the way, selfie stick is not allowed inside. After having a selfie with “M” I was politely reminded by a security staff that selfie stick is not allowed.

Wall size painting

Egyptian artefact

Pieta

Another Pieta

After the Mona Lisa, the wife and I just strolled inside guided by the free map. We are not art lovers nor art fanboys but we cannot help but marvelled on those countless masterpieces and artworks. It was a never ending paintings, statues, figurines, antiques, artefacts and so on and so forth. It was an art overload for our brains.

We explored the place in our own pace; that is the advantage if you don’t join any tour group. We visited each nook and corner of Louvre; sometimes we were alone in one room while in other places the crowds were suffocating especially when members of tour groups are vying to take photos of an art piece that has an interesting story as narrated by their tour guide. I wonder whether they would still remember the story after their trip in Paris.

Massive rooms and high ceiling hallways are the norms inside Louvre but there are also rooms that look like cellar or basement. Without the free map and exit signs, you can easily get lost.

Remembering those warnings on net about pickpockets in Louvre I kept on checking my wallet and bags whenever the crowds start to become unbearable. Nevertheless, nothing untoward happened; the wife and I felt secured inside even if we found ourselves alone in a certain room due to numerous CCTVs and security staffs posted in many places.

Underneath the glass pyramid connecting to Carrousel de Louvre mall

After more than three hours we called it a day. We bought some souvenirs and left Louvre through Carrousel de Louvre, an underground shopping mall connected beneath Louvre's glass pyramid. To make our visit more memorable I bought the wife an Eiffel charm for her bracelet at Pandora shop in CDL. I could sense her overwhelming joy since she had  mentioned to me once about this kind of charm before we flew to Paris. Don't fret guys if you don't understand this "charm," it is a magical word that could appease any Pandora's ladies. Google Pandora's charm and you'd know what I mean, LOL.

Just to add, you can also enter Louvre through this mall to avoid the long queues outside the glass pyramid. 

Less queue outside the glass pyramid - 

I can say that visiting Louvre at the end of August/summer in Paris is ideal since there are less crowds and tourists. The weather is also perfect, chilly in the morning and evening while moderate during daytime.

With my Mona Lisa

Visiting Louvre is one of our ardent dreams; seeing and admiring its unparalleled collections made our dreams more meaningful. Of course, the Eiffel charm as well.