Louvre Paris

History

The Louvre began as a fortress built under King Philip II around 1190, defending Paris from the west. Charles V converted it into a royal residence in the 14th century, and over the following centuries kings including Francis I and Louis XIV expanded and rebuilt it, adding much of the palace you see today. Louis XIV eventually moved the royal court to Versailles, and the Louvre was left half-finished for over a century.

During the French Revolution, the National Assembly voted to turn the palace into a public museum to display art seized from the monarchy and the church. The Louvre opened to the public on 10 August 1793 with around 537 paintings on show, most of them formerly royal or church property.

The collection grew enormously under Napoleon, who filled the museum with art taken during his military campaigns across Europe, much of which was later returned after his defeat in 1815. The glass Pyramid entrance in the main courtyard, designed by architect I. M. Pei, was added in 1989 as part of a major renovation that reorganized the museum's layout and created its current underground entrance hall.

Opening Hours & Wait Times

The Louvre is open every day except Tuesday, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. On Wednesdays and Fridays it stays open until 9:45 PM. The museum is also closed on 1 January, 1 May, and 25 December. Admission stops one hour before closing.

The Louvre is the busiest museum on earth, and the ticket queue at the Pyramid entrance regularly runs 60 to 90 minutes on a summer Saturday for visitors without a booking. A timed-entry ticket bought in advance gets you into a separate, much shorter lane at your reserved slot, and mandatory security screening applies to everyone regardless of ticket type.

Wednesday and Friday evenings after 7:00 PM are consistently the quietest time to visit, once day visitors and tour groups have left. Saturdays are the busiest day of the week; Mondays are busier than they look, since several other Paris museums close that day and the Louvre absorbs the overflow.

Tickets & Prices

Since 14 January 2026, the Louvre charges different prices depending on where you live. Residents and citizens of the European Economic Area (EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) pay the standard rate; everyone else pays a higher rate. Both tickets cover the full permanent collection across all three wings, plus any temporary exhibitions running at the time.

Free admission requires valid proof of age or residency at the entrance; a passport, national ID card, or residence permit is generally accepted. The museum is also free for everyone on the first Friday of the month from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, except in July and August, and on 14 July.

Tickets are released 60 days ahead on the official ticket.louvre.fr and sell out for popular morning slots during summer. Buying online in advance secures your time slot and gets you into the ticket-holders' lane at the Pyramid entrance instead of the general queue.

Guided Tours

The Louvre's own guided tours cover the collection's highlights in around 90 minutes and run in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, and several other languages. A guide is useful here specifically because the museum is large enough that finding the works you actually want to see, without a plan, eats into your visit time.

Small-group and private tours from third-party operators typically include a timed entry ticket, a guide, and a fixed route past the collection's best-known pieces. These are worth booking if official time slots for your date are sold out, since third-party allocations are often booked separately from the museum's own inventory.

Getting There

The Louvre sits in central Paris on the Right Bank of the Seine and is well served by metro, bus, and river shuttle.

Address: Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France

Highlights of the Louvre

Good to Know

The Louvre has four entrances, and which one you use makes a real difference to your wait. The Pyramid in the main courtyard is the entrance almost everyone defaults to, which is exactly why it has the longest queue, especially for anyone still buying a ticket on the spot rather than arriving with a timed entry already booked.

The Carrousel entrance, reached via the underground Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall or directly from the Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre metro stop, bypasses the Pyramid queue entirely and opens earlier, from 7:00 AM. The Porte des Lions entrance, on the river side of the museum, is reserved for visitors who already hold a ticket, is closed on Fridays, and has no lockers. The Richelieu entrance is reserved for groups with a guide and holders of a Louvre membership card, so it isn't an option for most individual visitors.

View map of the Louvre entrances

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Louvre entrances

The Louvre is genuinely too large to see in one visit. Even a focused, fast-paced walk through the highlights, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, takes a couple of hours; seeing a single wing properly is closer to a half day. Picking two or three sections in advance works better than trying to cover everything.

Some galleries close for renovation or conservation work on a rotating basis. If there's a specific piece you want to see, it's worth checking the museum's room-closure schedule on louvre.fr before your visit.

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Frequently Asked Questions