Will be in Paris in June. Do you recommend buying Louvre tickets online ahead of time--we plan to spend the better part of a day there. I've read that buying ahead of time saves some time in line.

Suggest getting a museum pass - this will take you to the entrance much faster and covers multiple museums including Musee D'Orsay, Rodin and Versailles.

If you plan on getting a museum pass (which is the wiser choice if you expect to visit other musuems and sites such as the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, etc.), then you can wait until you get to Paris, as they are readily available. It's really not worth spending the extra money to get them in advance.

ditto the above. We went to Paris for the first time 2 years ago and got the museum pass. I am not sure if we visited enough museums to make it cost effective but the fact we did not have to stand in line was worth it even if we did not. We are going back in June this year and will buy one again.

Just curious & fully off the subject of tickets, the title caught my eye.

So here's the stupid American question I have. Is the "re" in Louvre silent?

I have always pronounced it the Louv, but have people shortened/abbreviated this as say they would with "San Fran." or when they say "Frisco.", when really it's San Francisco.

Both San Fran & Frisco are usually only used by persons who do not actually live in or around San Francisco.

Merci

"Louvre" is ALMOST a two-syllable word. "Louv" is definitely incorrect. You pronounce the "re" as about the equivalent of half a syllable, more if you're from the provinces.

It's prounounced "Louv-ruh".

Thank you, every time I said it I had the sneaking suspicion I had picked up a bad habit and sounded like a dope.

The suggestion above to purchase a museum pass is excellent. You can buy the pass at a Metro station. That way you don't have to stand in line at the Louvre.

When you purchase your Metro ticket or carnet just ask for a Carte Musées Monuments with it.

The Louvre is free on Sundays. Get there early though (before 9am), to avoid a long queue.

The Louvre is only free the first Sunday of each month. It has a reduced fee the other Sundays. It will be very crowded.

Try to avoid the Louvre on weekends because of the crowds.

Regarding the pronunciation. The French have that lovely way of almost totally dropping the last syllable. It is so much unlike the way most of us Americans would say "Lou-ver" sort of like a slat in a blind. So I suppose that many drop the last syllable all together as the pronunciation of "louv" sounds closer to the real thing with that very soft "ruh" on the end, than the usual American pronunciation. I'm not saying it's right, just less obnoxious.

But back to the question. For someone not planning to visit the other museums again, but would like to spend the better part of a day at Louvre, is there an alternative to standing in line? Can a "reservation" be made or a way to bypass the lines? Seems like someone once mentioned another entrance in fact.

http://www.louvre.or.jp/louvre/angla...ts/billets.htm

The site says:
To avoid the queue in front of the pyramid or at the ticket offices, all you need to do is buy your ticket in advance. The ticket allows access to the permanent collections and is valid any day until January 31st of the year following the purchase, so you are not obligated to reserve a specific date or time for your visit. Tickets that are not used by the expiration date, can be neither returned nor exchanged.

Those holding tickets can enter the Louvre Museum without waiting, by the special entrance in the passage Richelieu (between the Place du Palais Royal and the Cour Napoléon), and then proceed directly to the checkpoint at the entrance of the collections.

You may order tickets through one of our
two partners:
Ticketweb for visitors from USA and Canada.
FNAC or TicketNet for visitors from other countries.

Dont buy the pass unless you plan to see more than the Louvre. To make it worth it, you have to go to about 7/8 museums. Go on line to find out which museums the ticket serves because its not all of them. Buying in advance is not usually worth it as most hotels will sell them to you through the concierge. And unless you plan to be there rather early, plan to be surrounded by people regardless of time. Trust me, I have been several times. After you have been there for 3 or 4 hours, you will want out!

Patrick-

Regarding the "another entrance", yes, someone mentioned it recently. Go to:
http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm
"Practical Information" and then "Access", a map shows where the entrances are located. I think the entrance is at "porte des Lions" at the Denon wing - practically below Mona Lisa's room.

There are two other entrances and you will have to go through security at both of them. The line is for security, not for a ticket.

You can check the Louvre web site for a little map of all the entrances.

I forgot the easist entrance of all. The Metro stops at the Louvre and you walk right in under the Pei pyramid. You do still have to go through security though. It is inescapable.

Last November we had to evacuate briefly because of a security threat. Never did find out what it was and we were back in within 15 minutes.

I found the museum pass to be very worthwhile and we stopped into many more museums than we would have had we not bought the pass. It was worth it alone to bypass the long line at Sainte Chapelle (saved us at least an hour, I'm sure.) Last summer we were surprised to find no line at all at the Louvre entrance and really enjoyed this wonderful museum. The only line we encountered was to see Mona. We took a delightful snack break at a cafe looking out over the courtyard which allowed us to keep going for many hours.