Paris - Musee du Louvre

Day 3 of Paris: 

After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we took the metro to the station: Palais Royale, Musee du Louvre. 

TIPS: to avoid long line-up at the Louvre:

According to tripadvisor, other travellers advised that the line up at the pyramid entrance is usually pretty long.  There are 4 entrances to get into the Louvre, the Pyramid entrance is the most well-known.  To avoid the line up, you can enter via the entrance "Galerie Caroussel du Lourve".  

Via Metro: if you go from the metro station, get off the subway and exit at "Palais Royale, Musee du Lourve".  Turn left from the exit, and then head towards the entrance.  The walking tour guide told us the same thing.

The patio view from the cafe inside the Louvre

However, we followed the instructions and we still couldn't find that entrance.  We saw the line up at the pyramid, it wasn't that long.  I approached the security guard at the pyramid and I asked him where's the other entrance, he told me to just line up here.  I asked isn't there another entrance with a shorter line up?  He said: the line up today is pretty quick, it should be only 20 minutes.  So we listened to him and lined up at the pyramid.  Indeed, he was right; the line up was approximately 20 - 25 minutes :)

It was a cloudy morning, and the sky was clearing up in the afternoon

Buying ticket at the Louvre: get exact changes and accept the attitude:

**RANT ALERT**

We were lining up to get the entrance tickets.  When we got to the cashier, the ticket was 11,90 Euro each.  So I gave her 30 Euro for the two tickets (23,80 Euro).  The cashier had a bunch of coins (2Euros) sitting on her counter, but she just simply told me: 

 "No change, you see? (pointing on her counter) No coins".  

Ok?....do you take credit cards?

"Machine is down"

Ok....so I had to dig through my whole purse to find her the exact change.  I don't understand if she doesn't have coins, can she not just ask the person who sat right next to her for change?  She really had the "I don't give a f**k" face and attitude.  Ok, my fault, I misinterpreted the duty of a cashier (a French one), getting/giving change is NOT part of the job responsibilities.  Well, by the third day in Paris, I should just accept the way how the French work.  What do you expect? It's France.

I personally really like this painting.  When I looked at it, it was super vivid and it looks very 3-dimensional.  I love the use of colour and the shading.  It was like looking at a gallery inside a gallery.

The Louvre Museum is huge, it is impossible to digest their entire collection.  Someone told me if you just look at every piece of artwork for 30 seconds, it will take you at least 6 months to finish viewing all of them.  

Yes, everyone must see the Mona Lisa.  It's quite small and shielded with a glass case; it was the room with the most crowd.  To me, that's more like a check on the check-list.  I enjoyed looking at the other paintings and the Roman Sculptures.  The ancient artists were super skillful.  

We were at the museum for approximately 4.5 hours?  A lot of the artwork were breathtaking before it got too overwhelming.  We were getting super hot and hungry.  It took us a while to locate the cafe inside the museum, because the museum was humongous!  The cafe had a nice terrace/patio that faced the pyramid (second photo above).  We shared a salad and a sandwich.  The drinks were refreshing as it was super hot inside.

Extra info about the Louvre:
- Close on Tuesdays
- Visit after 6pm on some nights are 50% off and less crowded
- Check the official website for details :)
- Some people like to get the Museum pass to avoid line up