Paris Louvre Tour
>
Louvre tour is one of the main attractions of Paris.The Louvre is the world's truly great museums. Once the residence of the French King is now one of the world's most famous museums. This palace is both from an architectural point of view as well as from an arts perspective one of the must see sights in Paris. It displays about 300,000 works where some world-famous like the Mona Lisa from Leonardo da Vinci, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory are preserved. You could visit the Louvre every day for a month and not see all its 35,000 treasures. To have an enjoyable, nonexhausting experience, you’ll need to limit your focus or plan more than one trip.
You can tour the museum alone or through tour operators.Seeing Louvre museum with tour operator is better as most of the tours are guided tours.
If you choose to go it alone, focus on a particular department, collection, or wing. The departments are: Egyptian antiquities; Oriental antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities; sculptures; paintings; graphics and the graphic arts; and art objects, spread across three wings: Sully, Denon, and Richelieu. First-timers usually head to the three most famous works: Mona Lisa, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Venus de Milo. Finding your way is easy; signs mark the route, and the flow of other tourists carries you along. In the Denon wing, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, dating from the 2nd century B.C., is a masterpiece of Hellenic art. Before you climb the staircase topped by this magnificent sculpture, follow the sign that directs you to Venus de Milo (in the Sully wing), sculpted in the 1st century B.C. as the quintessence of feminine grace and sensuality. Don’t miss the fragments from the 5th-century-B.C. Parthenon. Also in the Sully wing are the Seated Scribe and the crypt of Osiris, the 18th-century rococo paintings of Fragonard and Boucher, and Ingres’s Turkish Bath. En route from Winged Victory to Mona Lisa, you will pass David’s Coronation of Napoléon opposite his Portrait of Madame Récamier. Stop and admire Ingres’s Grand Odalisque. By early 2004, Leonardo da Vinci’s La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) will return to her usual digs, the Salle des Etats, after getting a makeover. (Don’t worry, she remained on display while her home was renovated and was, as usual, the center of attention.) As shutterbugs crowd around the portrait, the famous Florentine gazes out at the throng. The secret of her tantalizing smile is a technique known as sfumato, which blends the borders of the subject into the background. The artist blurred the outlines of her features to make the corners of her mouth and eyes fade away, making her expression ever changeable and mysterious.
Some Louvre Tips
Long lines outside the Louvre’s pyramid entrance are notorious, but
here are some tricks for avoiding them:
• Enter through the underground shopping mall Carrousel du Louvre.
• Enter through the staircases (Porte des Lions) next to the Arc du
Carrousel.
• Enter directly from the Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre Métro station.
• Buy a Carte Musées et Monuments (Museum and Monuments Pass),
which allows direct entry through the priority entrance at the Passage
Richelieu, 93 rue de Rivoli. The pass costs 15€ ($17) for 1 day,
30€ ($35) for 3 days, and 45€ ($52) for 5 days. The pass is also good
for dozens of other museums in Paris.
• Order tickets via the Internet at www.louvre.fr, or by phone through
FNAC (08-92-68-36-22, toll number), and pick them up at any FNAC
store (except FNAC photo shops). There is an added service charge of
1€ ($1.15). Or walk into the nearest FNAC and purchase tickets at the
billeterie. You’ll find a branch of FNAC at 71 bd. St-Germain, 5e
(& 01-44-41-31-50; Métro: Cluny). You can also buy tickets at Virgin
Megastore, Bon Marché, Printemps, Galeries Lafayette, and BHV.
