The Louvre Museum at daybreak:

The Louvre Museum courtyard was still dark and deserted when we arrived. We chose to be there early to avoid the late-morning crowd of the most visited museum in the world. The experience was overwhelming to be in a place that is both so popular and so rich with history. It was our second day in Paris. We had seen the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and walked the avenues of Paris yesterday.

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The evolution of the museum:

The history of the museum structure started as a fortress in the last 12th and early 13th century. It later became a royal residence. It then ceased its function as royal residence when King Louis XIV decided to build and transferred to the Palace of Versailles. The structure had since then shifted its roles from housing resident artists, to offices, and to eventually become a world famous repository of art pieces.

Entry into the museum:

Entry into the Louvre Museum required the purchase of tickets. The ticket allowed for entry on a specific time frame. This was to control crowding the museum with the ever increasing number of visitors. Once inside, the main lobby will diverge to three different sections – Richelieu, Sully, and Denon. Each section holds a different set of museum collections.

Each section of the museum had so many art collections that it was impossible to appreciate each piece of artwork in a single day. People were crowding to famous pieces of art. There were so many visitors trying to view the Mona Lisa. A cordon was preventing crowding by forcing visitors to form a line. The line was snaking around and led to the front of the masterpiece. It helped a little bit with crowd control. The presence of a museum official further helped with crowd control.

We were feeling sensory overload before we even reached close to the end of the museum. The presence of benches and corners helped rest the brain and feet from exhaustion. We picked up the pace and sought a little bit of refuge under the glass pyramid. There was still one more section to see. We decided to call it the end of the day and headed back to the hotel. We rested a little bit and was out on the streets again for some evening escapade.

Revised: September 2, 2023.