For friends traveling to Paris for the first time, my advice is, if you are only visiting the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory.......skip it. This is all you'll see of Mona, a sea of tourists with iPhones taking photos. Thanks to my travel amie Mary Gilbert for lending this photo to illustrate my point.
UPDATE: Thank you dear reader Vreni for pointing out that on Wednesday and Friday evenings, the Louvre is open till 10 p.m. and is not crowded. I also hear from friends that they offer docent led tours in the evenings that just hit the high spots of the museum which is a good use of time spent there.
11 comments:
I prefer to visit the Louvre on Wednesday or Friday evening when it's open until 08:45 p.m. Usually during the "nocturne" you can see Mona Lisa without any "traffic jam".
I agree that the Mona Lisa is quite hyped-up and overcrowded. Yet I understand when my guests visiting Paris want to go see it because I remember myself as a tourist feeling the need to see it (and I always love the Raphael and DaVinci paintings in that grand hallway on the way to see her. I do recommend the newly opened rooms in the "De Louis XIV à Louis XVI" collection - beautiful rooms to walk through in the Louvre!
I must have lucky the time I visited, right after the museum opened. I was the only one in the room (except for the guards)--not that impressed. I enjoyed the other works by Leonardo and the quattrocento Italian religious paintings much more!
We were lucky too Virginia, went really early before the night owls were up :) that's quite a crowd there.. horrible!
That is exactly what it looked like when I was there last month. I did manage to get to the front and get some decent pictures though.
That's rather an overwhelming amount of a crowd.
Thank you Sara and Vreni for those tips. I thought that the Louvre was open late on Thursday evenings so it looks like I need to research that. Sara, the new exhibit there is something we all needed to know. Merci.
V
Isn't that the truth! I was at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg in June and the crowds were exactly like this. It was difficult to see any of the artwork as closely as I like.
Vreni and Sara are so right—timing is everything. But a lot of these people in the photo won't even turn around to see the epic masterpiece on the opposite wall: Veronese's "Wedding Feast at Cana." Dommage!
Wed. and Friday nights till 10. YOu were correct Vreni and I will add to my text.
The Winged Victory is just back after being out for nearly a year. I would love to know what people think about the restoration work.....
Post a Comment