[FRANCE] Louvre Museum and My Pickpocket Experience in Paris Metro

09:37 Travel Bunny 0 Comments


Louvre Museum is the world's largest art museum. It is famed for its vast art collection including Leornado da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting. I used the Paris Museum Pass to visit the museum.

Getting there:

Metro: Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre station (line 1 / 7), Louvre Rivoli (line 1)
Bus: the following bus lines stop in front of the Pyramid: 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95, and the Paris Open Tour bus.
Batobus: get off at the Louvre stop, quai François Mitterrand.



For Paris Museum Pass holders, it is compulsory to book your time slot. You MUST have your pass in hand before you can make your reservation as you need the unique number on the back.Do so immediately once you get your pass to ensure guaranteed entry.





* Visitor with advance tickets (including Paris Museum Pass): entrance via the Pyramid without having to queue.


Check the Covid-19 advice when visiting the museum here. Wearing a mask inside and surrounding area of the museum is now mandatory from 11 years old.


The museum is huge. It is impossible to see everything in just few hours. It is recommended to decide what collection you wish to see beforehand, refer to the museum map and go there directly. You will have to download the museum map from the official website as the printed maps will not be available at the museum. 

The museum staff guided us to an elevator which brought us straight to the floor where Mona Lisa is. Inside the elevator, you can see a directory of what exhibition are on which floor. I went straight to Level 2 where you can find paintings including the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is displayed at Salle des Etats.


What surprised me most was that visitor travelling with young child/children get to skip the line to see Mona Lisa. I just waited at a special line besides the painting. 



I waited less than 15 minutes and it was my turn. The painting was smaller than I thought it was but it was no less rewarding to finally see Mona Lisa for real. 


We were shocked to see how long the line of people was, waiting just to see Mona Lisa. The line extended till  a few floors down, no kidding! We were so glad we didn't need to go through the dreaded process of waiting with our son. Or else, I think we would have gave up to see Mona Lisa.


There are many other famous painting in the same gallery as Mona Lisa.



After seeing Mona Lisa, we began to explore other parts of the Museum. This part of museum mainly display French sculptures.

This sculpture depicts a soldier who died of exhaustion after running from Marathon to Athens to tell his fellow citizens of the Greek victory over the Persians in 490 BC.


Just having some fun posing with the sculptures.

A beautiful sculpture which depicts Hercules fighting with Acheloos who transformed into a serpent.




Next, we moved to Eastern Antiques section including those from Persian empire.








This is the Egyptian Antiques section. I have seen the real mummy in Egypt before, so it was nothing special to me.




Moving on the other parts of the museum. The model of Louvre Museum. The area is huge. 


It was getting late and I just wanted to find the exit. The exit was a long way. Passed through this section which is called Pavillon De L'Horloge.




As we exited the museum and headed to the metro, we passed by the inverted glass pyramid. Don't forget to take a photo here, you won't see it elsewhere.

A very unpleasant thing happened right when we boarded the metro at Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre station - My hubby got pickpocketed! Someone unzipped his jacket front pocket and took his wallet while he was carrying the stroller into the metro. It happened so fast and sudden that I didn't even know it happened till my hubby alerted me.

By the time we realized it, the wallet was gone and the suspect probably passed it to his accomplice. We were so shocked and in disbelief that it happened to us, but there was nothing we could do than to immediately get down at the next stop, call the bank to report lost cards and cancel all cards. And since the wallet has my hubby's ID card, he needed to report lost at the police station too on the next day.

I lost a few hundred euros. Fortunately, half of the cash was kept with me. It was my second day in Paris and it totally spoiled my mood of my remaining stay in Paris. Still, it was fortunate that it was not my hubby's passport that got pickpocketed, or else, the consequence would be much worse as we might have to cut short our travel plan in Europe.

Lesson learned: put your cash and valuables hidden as well as possible such as using travel money belt, only keep small change in your pocket. Although it was inconvenient and it felt uncomfortable to wear the travel money belt, we played safe and did so for the remaining journey, worried that it may happen again.

Paris is a hotspot for pickpocket but I never thought it would happen to me. I learned the lesson the hard way.


Louvre Museum
Adults: € 17 (online)
Opening hours: Opens 9am - 6pm everyday except Tuesdays
Website: https://www.louvre.fr/en


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