The Louvre - tips for your trip

[August 14th]

Well as if we could go to Paris without going to the Louvre! We knew this was going to be a biggie so we got up early and made it to the museum by 8.30am for the 9.00am opening. There is an entrance as you come out of the metro but if you have a pass or pre-paid tickets you can't use that entrance (learn from our mistake). We made our way to the main entrance and there was already a queue, this is where it gets confusing, as you look at the pyramid there are two lines but as you enter the square this isn't apparent. 

The closest line is for ticket/pass holders, there is another queue for those paying to go in, what we noticed was that most people were joining the ticket/pass queue and it wasn't until the doors opened and they had to show the pass that they realised they were in the wrong place and then had to queue all over again!

The other weird thing was that pass holders had their bags checked by the guard looking inside but those paying to get in had to have their bags x-rayed which makes NO sense to me! Surely if you were going to bomb the place, you would buy the ticket beforehand so you didn't have to wait so long to get in? Anyway, I just wanted to give you the heads up, let's continue...

Now we knew that everyone and their dog was going to head to the star of the show, the Mona Lisa, so we did the same thing in attempt to get it done and out of the way first. It wasn't too bad when we got there, it is quite a yomp from the main entrance!

Da Vinci should have had the forethought to paint her bigger, really, she is tiny! We got the obligatory selfie - oh we are such tourists! I posted this pic on social media and had some brainless fuckwit leave a nasty comment about not being allowed to take photos of paintings. It is fine to take photos as long as the flash isn't used, and if you do use it, expect some angry guards to give you an earful. These days, even mobile phones are able to take a decent photo in bad lighting so there really is no issue.

The we headed off to see the other two famous ladies, Venus Di Milo, who is stunning....

And the Winged Victory of Samothrace, daddy-ebi had downloaded an app for guided tours of the museum which was rather handy and filled us in with lots of facts.

 To be totally honest, I found the museum to be completely overwhelming, there is So - Much - Stuff! And it's so big, we found ourself meandering and not really taking in the art. We did play a couple of games to keep us amused as we made our way through the endless corridors... copy the statue/painting is always amusing...

And the other favourite was "What are they saying", I'm not sure I can repeat some of the suggestions for this one....

There are more ideas for making museum trip fun in my Gallery and Museum Survival Guide. I have absolutely no idea where we were when we spotted this but I took a photo because it reminded me of the Montessori materials..

I do recommend making your way to the Napoleon Rooms, they are so decadent and over the top, the chandeliers alone are amazing and I love these chairs...

Just look at the dining room, and to think how many important people have sat around this table!

We spent most of the day in there and were pooped by the end. The restaurant was pretty blah and over-priced (to be expected really) so if you can, take a snack in with you. Plan ahead and accept that you will only get to see a fraction of the place. Personally, I felt it was way to big so many of the amazing pieces of work were just lost in a sea of art and sculpture. At least I can check it off my bucket list now!

We grabbed some meats and cheese and had a simple dinner at home. I managed to stay awake long enough to see the Eiffel tower search light, you could just about see the top of the tower from our apartment...

The street we were on wasn't very exciting by day but looked quite pretty by night. I turned in early because we had another big day coming up!