Two hours in the Louvre is enough for the famous works and one or two rooms most visitors walk past. Before you book Louvre guided tours, here is where each work stands, wing by wing and level by level, and a route that fits between 6pm and last entry.
The museum shows some 35,000 works across about 73,000 square metres, in three wings named Denon, Sully and Richelieu. Every famous piece below has a room number from the museum itself, so you can find it with or without a guide.
Leonardo's portrait of Lisa Gherardini hangs alone in a glass case in the middle of the Salle des États, the largest room in the palace. It has been in that room since 1966 and behind glass since 2005, because it is painted on a warped poplar panel that needs steady heat and humidity. François I bought it from Leonardo in 1518. The Mona Lisa is small, and the crowd in front of it is the densest in the museum, even in the evening.
Veronese's Venetian banquet shares the Salle des États with Leonardo's portrait, and most of the crowd in the room has its back to it. Give it the minutes you save by not queuing for the front row.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace stands at the top of the Daru staircase, where she has been since 1883. The goddess is shown landing on the prow of a ship; she was carved in marble from Paros around 190 BC and found on Samothrace in 1863, without her head or arms. Part of her right hand, found later, sits in a small case on the landing.
The Venus de Milo was found on the Greek island of Melos in 1820 and has been in the Louvre since 1821. She stands almost alone at the end of a long run of red-marble rooms built for Napoleon's antiquities. Walk through the Salle des Caryatides (room 348) on the way: it was a Renaissance ballroom, and Molière played there for Louis XIV.
A granite sphinx guards the entrance to the Egyptian Antiquities in a vaulted crypt. Behind it, the department runs over two floors, with daily life on the lower one and a chronological display, including the Seated Scribe, on the upper.
Under the Sully wing are the foundations and the moat of the fortress that stood here before the palace, which François I began to pull down in 1528. The museum's own highlights tour takes it in, and so does the three-hour private evening tour.
The Napoleon III apartments are the Second Empire state rooms of the Minister of State, built in 1861 overlooking the Cour Napoléon and kept almost intact: gold, velvet and a drawing room that could turn into a theatre for 250 guests. They have been open to the public since 1993. One traveller on an evening tour wished the guide had mentioned them; they are worth the walk afterwards.
Human-headed winged bulls, each cut from one block of about 28 tonnes, once guarded the doorways of King Sargon II's palace in present-day Iraq. From the front they stand still; from the side they walk, which gives them five legs.
The wings are named after people, not directions, and every signpost uses them. Knowing which one holds what saves you the long walk back.
| Wing | Level | What is there |
|---|---|---|
| Denon | 1 | The Salle des États with Leonardo's portrait and The Wedding Feast at Cana; the Daru staircase and the winged goddess at its top; Italian and Spanish painting |
| Denon | 0 | European sculpture from 1500 to 1800; the Roman Antiquities, closed for renovation |
| Denon | -1 and -2 | The Islamic Art rooms, closed for refurbishment |
| Sully | 0 | Greek sculpture in the Galerie des Antiques, ending at the goddess from Milos; the Salle des Caryatides |
| Sully | -1 | The medieval Louvre: the foundations of the old fortress; the Crypt of the Sphinx |
| Sully | 0 and 1 | Egyptian Antiquities, on two floors |
| Richelieu | 0 | The Cour Khorsabad and the Near Eastern Antiquities |
| Richelieu | 1 | The Second Empire state rooms; the decorative arts |
The Islamic Art department is closed for refurbishment; some 50 of its pieces are shown in the decorative arts rooms of the Richelieu wing until 31 December 2026, and details are on the exhibitions page.
A route that works for an evening, guided or not. It assumes you are through security by 6:30pm on a Wednesday or Friday.
Last entry is 8pm, so this route needs you through security well before then. A tour that ends inside gives you the last stretch on your own.
The top evening tours start in the Denon wing and cover the works above, with the ticket in the fare.
Closures change week by week, with staffing, weather and renovation, so nothing on a route is certain until the day. The museum publishes a list of available galleries on its website, with a downloadable schedule for each coming week, and answers on-the-day questions on +33 (0)1 40 20 53 17.
I. M. Pei's Pyramid opened on 29 March 1989: 21 metres high, 35 metres across, 675 diamond panes and 118 triangles of extra-clear glass. The Cour Napoléon round it stays open until 9pm, so you can walk out of the hall and stand by the lit glass before the courtyard closes. The Cour Carrée, the square courtyard to the east, closes at 7:45pm.
Whether you see it lit depends on the month. The times below are for central Paris, mid-month, to the nearest five minutes.
| Months | Sunset, about | At a 6pm start | When you walk out at 9pm |
|---|---|---|---|
| November to February | 16:55 to 18:10 | Dark or dusk: the Pyramid already lit | Night |
| March and October | 18:55 and 19:00 | Daylight | Night |
| September | 20:05 | Daylight | Just dark |
| April and August | 20:40 and 21:05 | Daylight | Dusk or sunset |
| May to July | 21:25 to 21:55 | Daylight | Daylight |
The Tuileries Garden runs west from the Arc du Carrousel and is free. From April to October it stays open until 9pm, until 11pm in June, July and August, and closes at 7:30pm from November to March, so in winter you walk round it rather than through it. Visitors are asked to leave 30 minutes before closing.
The Seine runs along the south side of the palace, a few minutes from the Pyramid on foot, and the cafés under the arcades on the north side stay open after the museum closes.
The listings name more than the three famous works. The three-hour private tour starts in the Sully wing with the medieval Louvre. The group of six from the metro exit adds works by Michelangelo, Veronese and David, and a few lesser-known rooms on the guide's route. The private late-opening tour follows a Napoleon thread through the Napoleon-era rooms before the guide leaves you in Richelieu.
If you go alone, add one room nobody told you about: the Cour Khorsabad, on the ground floor of Richelieu, or the Great Sphinx in its crypt.
Room numbers, wings, levels and dates come from the museum's own pages on each room, and closures from its weekly list, checked 28 September 2026. What each tour visits comes from its own listing, captured on 28 September 2026.
You meet by the VOYAGE sign at the metro exit on rue de Rivoli, and the two hours count the walk in and security. Past the famous rooms, the guide's route reaches works by Michelangelo, Veronese and David.
From $175 per person
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A private guide takes you in with pre-booked tickets on an evening opening, from the Denon wing through the Napoleon-era rooms to Richelieu. When the guide goes, you stay on alone until closing.
From $346 per person For a party of two; the per-person fare falls as your group grows
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The guide speaks your group's language and wears a licensed-guide badge under the statue in front of the Pyramid. Fast-track entrance and the ticket are in the fare; getting to the meeting point is not.
From $295 per person
Check AvailabilityNext: read what to expect on the evening, find the meeting points on the map, or compare every tour on Louvre Tours.