Museo del Louvre (musee du Louvre)

The Louvre Museum (musée du Louvre) is doubtless the most famous museum of the world. It is surrounded by pure history, amog them the polemical “Da Vinci Code”, and its corners have much to offer. Being the most visited museum of the world, visitors are anxious to finally find the Mona Lisa from Leonardo Da Vinci, definitely an enigmatic paint that has wake up curiosity in thousand of people around the world.
You will also find other well-known pieces like the Aphrodite of Milos, Niké de Samotracia or the Escriba Sentado. Nowadays the museum is visited for thousands of tourists and is recognized as an encyclopaedic museum of the universal art.

Samotracia or the Escriba Sentado. Nowadays the museum is visited for thousands of tourists and is recognized as an encyclopaedic museum of the universal art.
In case you did not know, this museum not only has masterpieces but also a vast collection of furniture. The best piece of this collection is the Bureau du Roi from the XVIII century, now already returned to the Versailles Chateau.
The Louvre has previous pieces from 1848. Later pieces are shown in the Museé de Orsay and the pieces from contemporary art are exposed in the Pompidou Centre.
It was opened in 1793 and it is located in the Louvre Chateau.
If you travel to Paris do not avoid this wonderful museum that has too much to offer.

The museum pyramid

It is a glass and aluminium piece located in the patio of the museum also the access to the building. It was designed by the architect Ieoh Ming Pei and it was opened in the year 1989 by the president François Mitterrand.

Pyramid height

It measures 21.6 meters and it has more than 650 transparent glass panels divided into 603 rhombus and 70 triangles. The total weight of the structure is 180 tons. The walls are sloped like the Egyptian pyramids at 51º. This pyramid is the main and bigger of the crystal pyramids of the museum that includes another pyramid but this one inverted underground. Thanks to them the problem of the queue to buy the tickets.

Opening Days and times

It is open every day except Tuesdays and certain holidays from 9:00hs to 18:00hs. Mondays and Wednesdays until 21:45hs (only the short circuit).
You should consider that the evacuation of the saloons is about half an hour before the closing time.
The night Monday the museum is open partially for the short circuit only three sides.
Nowadays the museum has different collection of masterpieces coming from many civilizations, cultures and varied ages. It has around 300.000 pieces but only 35.000 are exposed.
The collection open for this circuit are: the medieval Louvre, Mesopotamia, Iran, the Khorsabad patio, the Sackler area, the Levante countries, the thematic circuit of the Egyptian antiques and Italian and French paints.
The night Wednesday the available collections are the same of the ones during the day except for the Apollo gallery, the Bell gallery and the art saloons of Africa, Asia, Oceania and America; Closed from 17:30hs. The History saloons of the Louvre are open from 9:00hs till 21:45 and on Friday from 9:00hs till 18:00hs.
Other saloons can also be closed in special circumstances.

Address

99, Rue de Rivoli, 75001 París
Tel: +(33) 01 40 20 50 50
Fax: +(33) 01 40 20 54 52
E-mail: info@louvre.fr
Web: www.louvre.fr

How do I get there?

The metro stations are the following:
Palais-Royal (Musée du Louvre) (line 1 y 7)
Louvre-Rivoli (line 1)
Pont Neuf (line 7)
Tuileries (line 1)
Concorde (lines 1, 8 and 12)
Aseemblee Nationale (line12)

If you choose the RER you will have to get out of it in the Musée d'Orsay station from line C, which is on the other side of the Seine just a couple of minutes from the Louvre walk.
Public buses have many lines that take you to the Louvre. Some of them leave you in the famous pyramid including lines 27, 39, 95 and 68. The Balabus and other lines will leave you close to it including 21, 24, 48, 72 and 81.
The routes of the double floor touristy buses (L'OpenTour y Les Car Rouges) also have stops in the Louvre.
If you have a car there is an underground parking. The entry is on Avenue du Général Lemonnier. The car parking is open from 7:00hs to 11:00hs.