My wife and I will be taking a long weekend in Paris in mid-December. We have had positive experiences with guided tours in Florence and Rome, and wondered whether we can get ideas about a Louvre tour that would be worthwhile. Saving time from tix lines and an English language tour -- of a finite number of works not to miss -- are what interest us most.

Thanks.

hi, jmc,

I googled the louvre, and found this link to their official guided tours, which have a variety of themes, last 90 mins, and appear to be free.

http://www.louvre.fr/llv/activite/li...ivite_nature_1

hope that helps,

regards, ann

thank you.

I believe you can get a tour with Parisvision or Cityrama.

We ( a group of five family & friends ) took the "Paris Muse
Clues Family Tour" of the Louvre with guide Ellen McBreen of
Paris Muse tours back in June, 2007. The tour was designed
to make art history fun and challenging for kids ( we had a
13 year old in our group ), but the four adults in our group
very much enjoyed and appreciated the tour as well.

Paris Muse offers art tours at most of the major art museums in Paris, including several different tours at the
Louvre. The tours are expensive, but our group felt the cost
was very well worth it. According to their website,
Paris Muse limits their museum tours to four people ( five
for the family tour that we took ). You would be able to pay
a surcharge ( 20 euro, currently, per website ) to ensure that the tour is private for you and your wife. Their guides
are art historians, and are native English speakers. Our guide, Ellen, was very knowledgeable, an excellent teacher,
and a delight to be with.

Their website is: parismuse.com

FYI: We also had wonderful experiences with:

Chocoholic Tour of Paris with Barbara Pasquet James of
ParisTalks ( paristalks.com ). Barbara offers a variety of
walking tours and "table talks". Very worthwhile.

Segway tour with City Segway Tours ( I think our guide was
Greg, but I'm not 100% sure )... citysegwaytours.com/paris .
Much, much, much fun!!!

Private cooking class with Anne Svez
( afoodiefroggy.canalblog.com ). Cooking class is in Anne's
beautiful home, limited to four people, and the wonderful results are enjoyed at Anne's dinner table following the class.

Have a great trip!

Bill

I haven't taken one, but I believe you have to wait in line to get into the Louvre anyway, to book one of their tours. You can't get inside without waiting in the security line, which is the long one. The line at the ticket machines is only a few people. The line at the tour counter could be longer, but in any case, don't book a tour for that reason (to avoid lines).

These are all great insights. We're going ahead with the Parismuse idea. Thank you all for your responses.

I can also recommend Context Paris:

http://www.contexttravel.com/paris/

I have taken their Italian Art tour of the Louvre and it was excellent. (They offer other themes as well.)

I have also taken many ParisMuse tours over the years and their Louvre tours are very complete, well-organized and informative too.