The Mona Lisa is probably the world’s most popular paintings in the art history, painted by Leonardo da Vinci during The Italian Renaissance. The most common fascinating thing I have heard about the painting Mona Lisa, was her smile and bewitching gaze which follows you around the room. Be it a myth or not, I just had to witness it for myself.
It was Day 6 of our Germany-France trip and visiting Musée du Louvre, also known as Louvre Museum was on our 1st Day in Paris’s priority. We took the Metro line and alighted at Pyramides Station to collect our Paris Museum Pass from Big Bus Information Center. Thankfully the queue was just about half an hour.
For those whom might not know, the Paris Museum Pass was purchased online in advance via Klook which offers over 50 museums and attractions in and around Paris. Select the option of 2, 4 or 6 days pass depending on your itinerary. Since we had booked a specific time slot to enter, we hurried our way towards Musée du Louvre and making sure to check on our belongings as and when due to countless warnings of pickpockets lurking among the crowd.
Musée du Louvre was a medieval fortress, home to French kings and queens before being transformed into one of the world’s most popular museum. I was mesmerized by the majestic architecture, blending heritage with modernity of the glass pyramids. I just could not believe how huge this museum was till I stepped through the entrance of the glass pyramid and started exploring.
First thing first, you would need to lock up all your bulky bags and winter coats if applicable, in the locker room. So thankful that they have different locker sizes and the locker doors were transparent for easy identification! Next, grab the museum map and start exploring!
I must admit that I am that typical tourist whose main purpose of visiting Louvre Museum was to take photo of the famous Mona Lisa painting, which resides in 1 out of the 11 other galleries. Check out how crowded the gallery corridor was as everyone were seemingly making their way towards Mona Lisa painting.
After over an hour of queuing, we were finally standing right in front of Mona Lisa. Each batch was given about 45 seconds to take as many shots as we wanted, including videos. I was trigger happy, snapping away on both my camera and mobile phone.
After ticking this off the bucket list, we wandered around for the next hour or two, viewing paintings, sculptures and artefacts from some of the other galleries before exiting to get our stomachs filled.
If you’re a fan of the arts like me, check out my post on Vincent Van Gogh paining.
I love the Louvre, particularly the sculptures! Greetings from London.
Great! Glad you love it, the sculptures were one of my favourite too!
Thanks for giving us some historical insight. I didn’t even know that “Musée du Louvre was a medieval fortress” in the past.