Our Tour of the Louvre and Riding the Tootbus
Updated: Oct 2
The Louvre is massive in scale and appeal. It is also crowded enough to make the Mona Lisa feel disenchanting. That was the takeaway from my time there, but I can see ways we could have done it better.
Our day started outside, near the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. Dean was combing the dirt for rocks, eyes lighting up like a child at the chert he found. I was trying to figure out where our Crown Tours group would meet. That set the tone well. Paris gives you grand architecture and logistical confusion at the same time.
The Louvre is More Manageable on a Tour
We booked a two-hour Crown Tours visit through GetYourGuide. It was a good call.
The Louvre is not a museum you casually wander for two hours and handle well. It was a royal palace before it became a museum. The building itself is part of the attraction. The fortress foundations, the palace wings, the courtyards, and the glass pyramid all compete with the art inside.
Our tour started in the basement, which was very cool. We saw the old moat area and the remains of the medieval structure. It gave the museum context right away. This was not always a quiet place for paintings. It began as a fortress under in the late 12th century, then grew into a royal residence.
The scale is not an accident. The Louvre feels huge because it was built by power, money, and centuries of expansion. A guide removed the stress. We did not stand around consulting a map. We moved with someone who knew the path.
She even started the tour with a bathroom break after seeing the moat and the medieval basement. It was good value for the money. You can book the same tour in the first link below. There are also other tours we might have considered:
The Egyptian Exhibits Were Closed
Our guide took us by the Egyptian entrance. We saw the small sphinx at the entryway, which was a cool moment. But that section was closed during our visit on a Friday.
That is a good reminder. Even famous museums have room closures. Staffing, renovations, and preservation work can all change a route. Do not build a whole visit around one hallway unless you confirm access close to your date.
Still, seeing the sphinx at the doorway was enough to make me want to go back. The Egyptian collections are one of the Louvre’s major draws, and we didn't really touch them.
The Sculpture Halls Reminded Me of Italy
The Roman sculpture halls were easy to enjoy. They had movement, space, and enough visual variety to keep the tour from feeling like a checklist. There wasn't really enough time to look close, but it's like the marble statues we saw in Italy, so breezing past felt reasonable
Then we reached the Venus de Milo.
This is where a guided tour pays off. In a museum this large, famous works can sneak up on you. One minute you are walking through marble figures. The next minute, there she is.
The Venus de Milo is a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period, usually dated to around the 2nd century BCE. It was found on the island of Milos in 1820. Even with people around it, the statue had presence. It was much easier to admire than the Mona Lisa.
Next came the Winged Victory of Samothrace. This was a calming major stop.
The statue stands at the top of a staircase, and the placement is perfect. It looks like it is cutting through wind. It represents Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The modern Nike brand takes its name from that goddess. The swoosh is an inverted copy of the wings of the sculpture.
The Mona Lisa was Disenchanting
The Mona Lisa was not magical for me. It was disenchanting.
The painting is lit well. It is protected. The room is set up for crowds because the museum knows exactly what happens there every day. But there were too many people to enjoy it.
I could barely get a good look. I could not stand there and take in the brushwork, the expression, or the scale. It became a crowd management exercise. Dean is tall with long arms, so he got a better angle over the phones and heads in front of us. I mostly noticed throngs of people trying to get a photo.
That does not mean it is not worth seeing. It means go early. Our tour started at 11:00am. I think there would have been less people there at 9:00 when the museum opens. However, do not make her the emotional centre of your visit. See it, accept the crowd, then move on to the works you enjoy in more peace.
The Final Painting
Our guide ended with a painting connected to Coldplay’s Viva la Vida album cover. That painting is Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix.
It was a strong final stop because it connected old art to something familiar. That is where a guide can help. A good tour does not just point and name objects. It gives you a reason to care.
The Real Masterpiece is Architecture
The exterior of the Louvre impressed me the most.
The glass pyramid is neat. The palace facades leave you awestruck. The scale of the courtyards, the stonework, and the long wings made the museum feel bigger than any single artwork inside it.
The official collection is enormous, and tens of thousands of works are on display. People say it would take over a week, sleepless, to see everything. That is not an exaggeration if you plan to give each object real attention. Even at a rushed pace, it is too much for one visit.
A two-hour tour gave us the highlights in an organized way. On our own, we would have lost time finding rooms, doubling back, and missing context. The tour was well worth it. The Mona Lisa was underwhelming because of the crowd, not because of the painting.
Our Rush Hour Tootbus
After the museum, it was about 2:00pm. Dean went back to collecting rocks near the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel while we waited for Tootbus. Then we lost 2.5 hours in Paris traffic.
The bus took us on a route where the only real highlight was the Trocadero. We had a perfect 4:00pm view of the Eiffel Tower, but we were inside the bus trying to get air conditioning on a hot day, so that didn't stand out as a great decision. Hop-on hop-off buses aren't great for really seeing the sights. You can only choose a few things max per day.
I can't review Tootbus for every route or time of day. But for us, the experience was awful. In late-afternoon traffic, it was a slow crawl. We got off around 5 pm almost back at our starting point, grabbed Five Guys because we were starving, then we had to take a cab to make our Catacombs reservation. The cab passed through the Louvre on the way there.
If you have a timed booking later in the day, do not rely on a sightseeing bus to get you there. Use the Métro or a cab, and leave extra time. I would book the guided tour again. I would skip the rush-hour Tootbus. And I would save my patience for the Catacombs, where Paris gets quieter.
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