The Louvre and The Mona Lisa

The Louvre is just a few minutes walk from our hotel.  After a bit of rest, we got back to our feet and on to The Louvre.  (Transportation options)  We entered via Passage Richelieu, which is near Palais Royal - Musee du Louvre metro station.  The main entrance to The Louvre Museum is via the Pyramid.  However, for those with advanced tickets, those included in the tour groups and holders of Paris Museum Pass can use the entrance in Passage Richelieu.

Passage Richelieu

Pyramids of the Louvre

Pyramid Entrance

Once inside, there are elevators going to the different areas of the museum.  You just need to present the ticket to get through the entrances.  There's an information booth in the center (below the pyramid), ticket booth in one of the corners, luggage storage and a place where visitors can leave their coats.

After going past the museum-ticketed gates, it's a maze of sculptures and paintings.  Our goal is to see The Mona Lisa, which is in Denon Hall.  We took some detour to make the most of our time in the museum.  While inside the galleries, we took off our jackets due to the warmer, controlled temperature.

Our prize... seeing The Mona Lisa... It's in a glass case though, far from reach of her visitors.

After seeing what we came for, we looked for the exit and headed out of the galleries.  We followed the signs to Jardin des Tuileries.  This is where we saw the inverted pyramid.  One doesn't need to buy the tickets to Louvre Museum to see this.  It's inside the building but outside of the ticketed areas.  It's near the shops at the Louvre.

Inverted Pyramid

The next day, we came back to The Louvre to take some pictures outside when it's not yet that crowded.

The part enclosed by the plants is the area above the inverted pyramid.  It's off limits.