Musee du Louvre

In 2002 first visit to Paris, Louvre Museum was my priority choice.
In 2005 second visit, I put Orsay Museum on top on the list instead of Louvre.

In 2002, I made a point to fight with the crowd and had a close contact with Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting “Mona Lisa”.
In 2005, having read Dan Brown’s book the “Da Vinci Codes” and pay more attention to the Netherlands, French and Italian 14th to 16th century paintings after years of stay in Europe; I had a more relaxing time in the upper level appreciating the great artworks instead of squeezing in human wall to Mona Lisa.

Although the famous and popular artworks still attracted lots of tourist who came all over the world to worship the objects and made Louvre really like a big fish market instead a gallery, I felt fortunate to be here again. Also, lucky enough for not paying because it was free admission on the first Sunday of the month. As the collections were too huge and the paintings information were only in French, you definitely need an audio guide or buy a guide book, otherwise you will certainly miss many good objects.

Anyway, you can’t finish Louvre in one day. The tips is : look for what you like to see and plan for it as the buildings are too huge and you really need good walking shoes to walk from one level to see Venus de Milo, another level for Mona Lisa and the different room location for the Lacemaker.

Being the largest museum in the world and houses more than 350,000 of all kind of collections, one could not have missed this impressive museum if you are in Paris.