Louvre Museum

How to visit without queuing twice

The mistake people make is turning up at the glass Pyramid with a Paris Museum Pass and assuming that is enough. It is not: since the post-pandemic rebooking system bedded in, the Louvre runs on timed entry, and a Museum Pass still needs a reserved slot booked separately. Buy that slot online before you fly — the 09:00 and mid-morning times go first, two to five days ahead in summer. Note the 14 January 2026 pricing change: the standard ticket is now €32 (about £28) against €22 for EEA residents who can prove residency, which makes the Paris Museum Pass a better deal for most UK visitors stacking several monuments.

Skip the main Pyramid queue entirely by entering through the Carrousel du Louvre, the underground shopping concourse reached from 99 Rue de Rivoli or the Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre metro — same museum, a fraction of the wait. Then go in with a plan: the Louvre is the size of a small town, and trying to “see it all” is how people leave exhausted having seen corridors. Pick two or three wings — the Italian paintings, the French Romantics, the Egyptian antiquities — and walk past the rest.

Is the Louvre worth it, and when to go

Take a Wednesday or Friday evening slot: those are the only two nights the museum stays open to 21:45, the coach groups have gone, and the Denon wing empties out enough to actually stand in front of a painting. If you can only go by day, the first slot at opening beats the midday crush, and avoid Sunday afternoons. Allow two and a half to three and a half hours for a focused visit, or block out a full day if you want to do the building justice.

The Louvre is worth the ticket, but not for the Mona Lisa — she is a small, bulletproof-glassed painting behind a permanent scrum of raised phones, and most people find her an anticlimax. The reward is the breadth: the Italian and French galleries, the Egyptian rooms, and the palace itself. If you want one big Paris museum and you want range, this is it; if you want an easier, two-hour first visit, the Musée d’Orsay across the river is the gentler pick.