VERDICT: We gave 4 out of 5 tickets and here’s why!
This guide forms part of our complete France Travel Guide, featuring scenic road trips, iconic destinations, practical travel advice and honest first-hand travel experiences from across France.
This article is also part of our 🚗 4-Day Paris Travel Guide series, exploring major attractions in Paris including; Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Galeries Lafayette, Notre Dame, Montmartre, Sacré-Cœur, and a River Cruise on the Seine. Beginning at Paris CDG and then to central Paris, our 4 days were packed with tours and adventures. Read the complete itinerary here.
From the Mona Lisa to a Hidden Medieval Fortress. Why One Visit Is Never Enough
Paris didn’t give us sunshine that day… it gave us something better. A rainy afternoon became the perfect excuse to step inside the world’s most famous museum – the Louvre.
What we found? A hidden fortress… world-famous masterpieces… and a reality we didn’t expect. Because here’s the truth, you can’t visit the Louvre in one day… we tried!
Our time slot for the Louvre, Paris was at 2:30pm, prebooked via Expedia. (You really have to compare tours, as usually Viator is our best option) Meeting just outside at the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, we joined a small guided group, hoping this would be the best way to navigate what is easily one of the largest museums in the world. And within minutes… we realized we made the right call. With priority access, we moved through security, already busy and stepped inside a space that’s almost impossible to comprehend in scale.
Our tour actually began below the museum… in the basement. Beneath the Louvre sits the original medieval fortress. Massive stone walls, once hidden and buried, now exposed giving you a glimpse of what stood here centuries before the museum even existed.
This is dedicated to the foundations of the OG Louvre Fortress that predates everything that we saw that day. The Louvre Fortress was built by King Phillipe, August 1190, but was destroyed during the Renaissance when King Francois I levelled it to begin creating the Louvre we see today.
From there, we moved into the galleries… and straight into some of the most famous works in the world. We saw a lot of Greek art, including the statue of Athena, Venus de Milo, Centaur & Cupid, the gilded halls & ceiling of the Diana Room – showing Hercules obtaining a golden horned doe from Diana. These were perfectly maintained & glowed in their richness.
The famous sculpture Psyche revived by Cupid’s Kiss, was amazing to see in person… the artistry it took to complete this from one block of marble…Followed by room after room of richly decorated ceilings and historic artwork. Then… the moment everyone comes for.
The Mona Lisa.
Smaller than expected… surrounded by crowds… but still, one of those moments you don’t forget. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500s, the Mona Lisa is the world’s most famous painting. The da Vinci’s sfumato technique, creates that soft, shifting expression that seems to change as you look at it.
One of the most fascinating things about the Mona Lisa is that for 400 years the painting was seldom known about outside of art circles. It wasn’t until an employee of The Louvre decided to steal the painting in 1911 that its fame skyrocketed.
The Mona Lisa, faces one of the largest paintings I’ve ever seen. This particular painting is positioned right behind the Mona Lisa. Entitled – The Wedding at Cana. Absolutely enormous. about 6.8 metres tall and nearly 10 metres wide. The largest painting in the Louvre, created in 1563 by Paolo Veronese It depicts the biblical story where Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding feast. Amazingly, I also noticed that most people missed it… because of the wee Mona Lisa.
We both thoroughly enjoyed the tour and wish we had more time to see many more exhibits. That’s the Louvre in a nutshell. Incredible… overwhelming… and impossible to fully appreciate in one visit.
Added Note: It was interesting to note the security we went through, after the robbery that had taken place at The Louvre not too long before we visited. Then about 4 days after we’d been, a story broke that some staff & tour guides had been running a ticket scam for so many years that it cost The Louvre millions of dollars. It wasn’t lost on us that they could have used that money to fix the roof that had caused the leak when we were there, that ruined some irreplaceable art. That stolen money also would have solved the issues that had caused recent staff strikes… including wage increases.
> The downside for us at this time slot was the intensity of the crowds at the Louvre. It was packed! Despite that, it was well worth the visit.
As the largest museum in the world, the Louvre gets around 7.5 million visitors annually. This unfortunately means crowds are all but guaranteed. My best advice is to purchase your tickets well in advance because they do sell out.
As we left the Louvre we caught a taxi back to our apartment and enjoyed the rest of the evening. We will certainly remember our visit, including seeing the Mona Lisa. You don’t “complete” the Louvre. You come back… and next time, you explore a different part of it.
And that alone… is reason enough for a return ticket.
Famous Sculptures in the Louvre:
- Venus de Milo (c. 100 BC): Hellenistic masterpiece representing Aphrodite.
- Winged Victory of Samothrace (c. 190 BC): A marble sculpture of Nike.
- Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss (1787–1793):Antonio Canova’s romantic masterpiece.
- Dying Slave & Rebellious Slave (1513–1515):Michelangelo’s marble statues.
- The Marly Horses (1739–1745): Guillaume Coustou’s monumental sculptures.
- Great Sphinx of Tanis: Ancient Egyptian sculpture.
- Code of Hammurabi (c. 1754 BC): Famous Babylonian legal code stele.
Famous Artists/Painters in the Louvre:
- Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne.
- Eugène Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People, The Death of Sardanapalus.
- Jacques-Louis David: The Coronation of Napoleon, Oath of the Horatii.
- Raphael: Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione.
- Jan Vermeer: The Lacemaker.
- Paolo Veronese: The Wedding Feast at Cana.
- Georges de la Tour: The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds.
In summary, here’s the best things to see at the Louvre. Use these chapters to view sculptures and paintings featured in the video:
0.14 secs: Louvre Pyramids
0.36 secs: Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
0.49 secs: Inside the Main Entry Hall at the Louvre
1.09 secs: Original Medieval Fortress
1.39 secs: The Great Sphinx of Tanis
1.44 secs: Greek artwork & sculptures
1.46 secs: Athena, Greek Goddess of Wisdom & War
1.47 secs: Apollo, Olympic God of Music, Healing, Prophecy & Archery
1.49 secs: Venus, Roman Goddess of Love
1.52 secs: Venus de Milo
1.56 secs: Old Centaur teased by Eros, God of Love
2.10 secs: Nike, Greek Goddess of Victory (where the shoes got their name)
2.14 secs: Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
2.24 secs: The Slaves – Crown jewel of the Michelangelo Gallery
2.37 secs: Mercury Abducting Psyche
3.23 secs: Mona Lisa
3.57 secs: Wedding at Cana
4.25 secs: Raft of Medusa, raft with 147 people (only 15 survived) at sea for 15 days
4.28 secs: Lady Liberty shown waving French flag in one hand & a bayonetted rifle in the other
4.40 secs: Head of John the Baptiste on a disc
4.48 secs: First Selfie – Apollo
4.52 secs: Time Discovering Truth
Continue Exploring Northern France
- Paris to Nice: 7-Day Road Trip
- Full Video Series: 7-Day Road Trip, Paris to Nice
- Where we stayed in Europe
- The Battle that Changed France
- 10 Amazing Things to do in Orléans
- 24 Hrs in Lyon: Basilica and Roman Ruins
- How to Use a Toll Road in Europe
Nearby Attractions
- Le Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
- Free Rooftop Views of Paris
- How to Use a Toll Road in Europe
- La Favorite Saint Paul, Paris
- Explore Montmartre, Paris
- Guided Tour: The Louvre Museum
- Paris 3 Course Dinner Cruise Along the River Seine
- 3 Reasons to Visit Overlord Museum, Normandy
- Notre Dame, Cathedral
- D-Day Landings: Juno Beach
- Post d’Avignon – the Broken Bridge
- Bayeux, France
- Chateau de Sully-Sur-Loire
Planning Your Trip?
Before you go, don’t forget to book the essentials:
- 🏨 Hotels & unique stays
- 🚗 Rental cars
- 🎟️ Top-rated tours & attractions
- 📶 eSIMs for easy connectivity
- 🛡️ Travel insurance
- 🎒 Packing Lists
- 🎒 Travel gear from The Venturio
With every trip, we offer feedback to travel companies along with honest views for you, the reader. We rate adventures on a scale of one to five tickets, judged on quality, service, memorability, and price. A perfect ‘Ticket Rating’ of a five-ticket score means the experience was flawless and we’d eagerly return. Your desire to go back is the ultimate measure of a trip’s worth. Exclusive to My Return Ticket.
