Grace Miller

When most people think of the Louvre, their brain automatically goes to the Mona Lisa, which is exactly what I thought of when I was planning my trip to Paris. So, when I decided to carve out two and a half hours for the Louvre, I thought it would be plenty of time. I mean, what else was there to see besides the Mona Lisa? So much, I learned…so much. 

Over the weekend of March 4-5, I traveled to Paris from London. I did not plan much for this trip, but I knew I wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower, see the Arc De Triomphe, eat croissants, and go to the Louvre. Thankfully I was able to do all these things, and my favorite experience was either going to the top of the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre. 

I went to the Louvre on March 5 at 9:30 A.M. with Allison Poch, a fellow DMACC student. We had to leave at 11:55 to meet some other people for lunch. At first we thought this would be plenty of time to see most of the museum, so we took our time at each exhibit. 

There are three wings of the museum. Allison and I started in the Denon Wing because it’s where the Mona Lisa is displayed. On our way to the Mona Lisa, we saw exhibits that held European sculptures, Greek and Roman antiques, and French and Spanish paintings. All these exhibits were truly breathtaking. There were so many famous pieces of art that I’d seen either in school or on the internet that I couldn’t believe I was seeing in person. 

Finally, Allison and I made it to the room that held the Mona Lisa. As expected, there was a crowd of people wanting to get a picture of it. Luckily, some ropes guided people into a line so that everyone got their turn. My friends and family kept telling me how small it was, so I was expecting it to be much smaller than it was. It was a normal-sized painting. It was cool to see this piece of art in person as well, but I thought there were so many other, more impressive pieces of artwork to see. 

Soon after seeing the Mona Lisa, Allison and I headed to the Richelieu Wing, which held my favorite part of the Museum, The Studio. The Studio is two large rooms with old French architecture. These grand, bright, and airy rooms held gorgeous French sculptures from the years 500-1850, according to the Louvre’s website. These two rooms were architecturally stunning and gave life to the sculptures inside.  

After spending time in The Studio, we saw an exhibit that held art from Mesopotamia. This exhibit was quite different from the other European art that I’ve seen, which made it all the more interesting. 

By the time we were done in the Richelieu Wing, we had about 30 minutes until we had to leave. We thought we would be able to skim past the exhibits in the third wing if we walked quickly enough, so we committed and went to the Sully Wing. We underestimated how large this wing of the museum was–we sped through two exhibits and were still late for lunch! We spent most of those 30 minutes walking through a series of stunning rooms that were decorated to show how very wealthy Europeans would have lived. Next we spent about 10 minutes walking through the Egyptian antiques dating from 4000-30 BC. I wish we had more time in this exhibit, but by then we had to leave. 

Overall, I loved going to the Louvre! The sheer amount of art was so impressive. I also loved how the architecture of each room was curated specifically to show off the art it held. My time there was worth every penny of the $18 entry fee. Even if you are not interested in art, you would still enjoy the Louvre, as Allison Poch experienced. “I probably wouldn’t have gone if you didn’t want to. But I’m glad I went, I enjoyed it!” Poch said.

If I could recommend anything to someone who has not gone to the Louvre, I would tell them to give themselves plenty of time to spend there. If I had more time in Paris, I would spend at least one or two full days just in the Louvre alone. So please, if you are going to Paris, go to the Louvre…and don’t make the mistake of only giving yourself two hours.