If visiting Paris, we strongly recommend visiting the Louvre museum. It is so large, you can visit different section each time you tour Paris.

Getting to the Musée du Louvre: map
Métro: Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre
Bus: 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95, and the Paris Open Tour bus (these lines stop in front of the glass pyramid entrance)
Underground parking is open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and is accessible via Avenue du Général Lemonnier.

Museum Hours:
Monday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 9:45 p.m.
Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, 9 a.m. to 9:45 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The museum is not open on Tuesdays and the following holidays: May 1st, August 15th and December 25th, 2006.

Admission Fees:
Access is free on the first Sunday of each month.
€8.50 per person for full day access to all permanent collection areas (includes access to the Musée Eugène Delacroix, but not the Hall Napoléon where temporary exhibitions are shown).
€6.00 per person for access to all permanent collection areas (see above) on a Wednesday or Friday evening, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
€9.50 per person for access to the Hall Napoléon (e.g. temporary exhibitions).

Brief History:
The Louvre was not always a museum.  It was originally built by Philip-Augustus as a fortress at the end of the 12th century.  It became a royal residence under Charles V in 1360 but did not receive its current 'Renaissance chateau' appearance until the 16th century. In 1682, King Louis XIV decided to move his court to Versailles and gave the Louvre to the Academy of Art as accommodations for artists. It first opened as a public gallery in 1793 (after the French revolution: 1789), and has been evolving ever since.  Today, it is the largest museum in the world.

A Massive Collection:

The museum is so vast, it is not possible to see everything in one day.  The Musée du Louvre houses 35,000 works of art, categorized into eight departments, displayed in over 60,000 square meters of dedicated space - and that's just the the permanent collections!  When visiting the Louvre, a thematic or cross-departmental approach is recommended.  Decide what interests you most, and focus on those items during that visit. 

Curatorial Departments:

• Paintings
• Prints and Drawings
• Sculptures
• Near Eastern Antiquities
• Egyptian Antiquities
• Greek, Etruscan, and Romantic Antiquities
• Islamic Art
• Decorative Arts

Famous Works:

The Louvre is home to some of the world's most famous works, including Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (La Jaconde) Rembrandt's self-portraits, Vermeer's Lacemaker, Michelangelo's Slaves (sculptures), Botticelli's Venus and the Graces, Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa, portraits by Holbein, JMW Turner's Landscape with a River, Fragonard's The Bathers, and the ever-admired Venus de Milo.

Finally, be sure to pay special attention to the now-famous modern, glass pyramid situated at the Louvre's main entry.  This structure was incorporated as part of the museum's landscape in the latter part of the twentieth century, set in juxtaposition to the ancient surrounding buildings.  It came under much public scrutiny at the time, creating heated debates between traditionalists and modernists.

For more information and virtual tours, please visit the official (in English) Musée du Louvre website.