arewethereyet

I'm looking through old posts regarding reservations - is it correct that I don't need to worry about making reservations from the U.S., but can do it once I arrive in Paris?

MorganB

I'm confused. The Louvre doesnt require reservations. you just show up and wait in line.....

worldinabag

Hi

Can't make reservations as far as I know. The following tips helped us avoid queues and crowds.

LOUVRE TIPS This museum is incredibly huge! You are just not going to be able to see everything. Try to do a bit of research beforehand and work out what exhibits you would like to see. I suggest advance ticket purchases. A highly-recommended entrance is the underground entrance from the metro stop "Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre". Buy your Louvre ticket (which includes two metro tickets) at any train station (refer Louvre website for other venues for museum tickets). Exit at the far end of the platform where the sign says "Direct access to the Louvre" and you will walk through a security check, then the Carrousel shops, and into the central ticket and information area. We didn't even have to queue! The museum closes at 9.45pm on Wed and Fri so if if you can go in mid afternoon on these days - crowds are apparently thinner. We went on Wed about 4pm. No hassles!

Hope this helps.

Have fun!

Charley1965

You can buy tickets in advance from the Louvre website. If you are going at a busy time then you can jump the queue and go straight in. If you get there first thing in the morning, it's not an issue.

AnthonyGA

There is rarely much of a waiting line for tickets; most of the waiting is to go through security checks, and you cannot jump that line, even if you already have a ticket.

Charley1965

Point taken but you can still join a ticket holders queue if you have a ticket can't you? Having said that, when we went there the queue for tickets was fairly small anyway!

AnthonyGA

There are lots of machines from which you can buy a ticket, and there are several lines with human ticket sellers as well, so it's pretty rare to have to wait for very much time in order to just get a ticket. The real wait is for security because there are very few security checkpoints.

Christina

I didn't think the Louvre sold tickets on their website (I might be wrong, I just remember looking). However, if they did, you'd probably have to wait in line to pick them up, anyway. I was just there a week or so ago so fairly heavy tourist season, and I only waited a couple minutes to buy a ticket at the automatic machines. Now that they have those machines, there really isn't much of a wait to get a ticket. For some reason, many people won't use them (or don't notice them), and go up to the desk to buy a ticket, and the line was a little longer there, but still not really that bad. This was around 10-10:30 in the morning.

As others said, the really long line was the security check, and even if you have a ticket, you have to wait in that line along with those who do not. Even that only took about 10 minutes. For some bizarre reason known only to them, they had the security line divided at the front with one side marked "those with tickets" and the other side "those without tickets" -- however, at the end of those two lines, they merged into one, and there was absolutely no difference in the two or in what they did. You don't buy your ticket there anyway, but inside, so I really don't understand what that is about.

Charley1965

You can buy them in advance from the website. Whether they get sent to you or you have an e ticket I do not know!

http://www.louvre.fr/llv/pratique/bi...sp?bmLocale=en

Christina

oh, that's what I had seen before, but that isn't the Louvre selling them, they direct you to several ticket agency web sites (FNAC, etc). I had thought of that option, but didn't bother, and was just as glad as the wait wasn't very long. If you get them from FNAC, etc., you then have to make a trip to their store to pick them up (I don't know if they mail, I've heard they will for a fee). I know FNAC has a service charge for those tickets, and I believe the other sellers do, also. It's not high, about one euro.

Charley1965

Oh I see. Yes, it's not the Louvre selling them of course! It's hardly worth it is it? We went on a Saturday morning and we didn't queue up for long.

Beatchick

I wonder if OP means reservations for a guided tour such as the English guided tour or one for the DaVinci Code tour??

clevelandbrown

One reason to buy your tickets at the counter, rather than from a machine, is that it gives you the opportunity to ask what galleries are closed today. They are apparently understaffed, and close one or two galleries each day, but I believe those galleries that are most popular with tourists are not among those closed.

djkbooks

When we were in Paris in May, queues at the Pyramid entrance of the Louvre were divided into two lines: those with BAGS, and those without BAGS. Even so, the security line moved very quickly. Those with bags in the "no bags" line thinking it was the "with tickets" line have to join the "with bags" line at the front...if you have a bag, it has to go on the conveyor and through x-ray check, otherwise you can bypass that line.

There are so many entrances with ticket booths, plus the ticket machines, these days that you really do not need advance tickets.

Take a look at the Louvre website. If the Porte des Lions entrance is open (9-5:30, except Tues & Thurs) when you arrive, that's a great place to start as the Mona Lisa is nearby and you'll get there before the mobs having used different entrances much farther away.

Otherwise, there is nearly never a line at the Carousel entrance (look for entrance signs on either side of the Arc du Carousel).

With a museum pass (which is highly recommended for Musee d'Orsay) you can breeze on in via the Richelieu passage.

Christina

They didn't have two lines for with and without bags when I was there a couple weeks ago. At least not in the entrance I was in which was the one you encounter first from the Louvre-Palais Royale metro stop. Passholders still have to go through security, and that is the long line. Perhaps random, but when I was there, the line for passholders was longer than the line for those without tickets.

djkbooks

Again, those who already have a ticket (and only those) can breeze right on in through the Richelieu entrance.

AnthonyGA

The purpose of the two lines is mainly to expedite the passage of groups with reservations (as opposed to individual visitors without reservations).