The Louvre after dark: late openings and evening tours

What the late opening actually is

On Wednesday and Friday the Louvre runs 09:00–21:00 instead of the usual 09:00–18:00. That is three extra hours, twice a week, and it is the single most useful scheduling fact about the museum.

Two caveats shape how much of it you get. Last admission is 1 hour before closing, so the final entry slot is 20:00. Staff begin clearing rooms 30 minutes before closing — from 20:30 you will be politely moved along, wing by wing. A 19:00 slot therefore buys you a solid, unhurried two hours. A 20:00 slot buys you about forty usable minutes and a lot of walking.

Note that this is a change from previous years, when the late opening ran to 21:45. Any guide still quoting that figure has not checked recently. These times were read off louvre.fr on 26 August 2026.

What an “after-hours tour” really means

This phrase is used loosely, and the gap between what people imagine and what they buy is wide.

What is sold as after-hours: a guided visit during the Wednesday or Friday late opening, usually with a hard cap on group size — six guests is the tightest we have found. The museum is open to the public throughout. You are sharing it with everyone else who booked an evening slot, which is simply far fewer people than at 11:00.

What is not being sold: the museum to yourself. Genuine after-closing access exists — the Louvre runs corporate hire and patron events — but it is arranged with the museum directly, priced accordingly, and is not something you can add to a basket. If a listing implies empty galleries for €120, it means the evening slot.

Wednesday or Friday?

They are not equivalent, and most visitors pick wrong.

The free first Friday runs every month except July and August. It is genuinely generous and genuinely crowded — a good deal if you are on a budget and a poor one if you came for a calm evening.

What to see in an evening slot

Two hours is not a survey. It is enough for one wing done properly, and the evening rewards a particular choice.

• Denon, first floor. The French large-format paintings — Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, David’s Coronation of Napoleon. These rooms empty dramatically after 19:00 and the canvases are big enough to reward standing back, which you cannot do at midday.
• The Daru staircase. The Winged Victory of Samothrace at the top of an empty staircase is a different object from the one you meet in a crowd.
• Galerie d’Apollon. Gilded, mirrored and dramatic under artificial light — arguably better in the evening than by day.
• Skip: Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities. They are excellent and they need daylight hours and fresh legs, not the tail of an evening.

The free version

The best thing about the Louvre after dark costs nothing. The Cour Napoléon stays open until 22:00, an hour after the galleries close. The pyramid and the surrounding facades are lit, the courtyard is largely empty, and you can walk straight in without a ticket.

For photographs, arrive in the twenty minutes after sunset. The sky still holds colour, the pyramid glass is lit from inside, and the balance between the two is the shot everybody wants and few people time correctly. Stand between the two small pyramids on the west side, facing the Sully wing.

One myth worth killing

A surprising number of people arrive looking for Van Gogh’s Starry Night. It is not here. It is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and it never has been at the Louvre.

More usefully: the Louvre has no Van Gogh at all. The collection stops around 1848, and everything after that went to the Musée d’Orsay when it opened. If Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are what you came to Paris for, the Orsay is a fifteen-minute walk across the river and is the museum you actually want.

The honest balance

Evening tours worth booking

Evening supply is thin. These are the live options with capped groups, checked in August 2026.

• 01

  Night at the Louvre: Guided Museum Tour, Max 6 Guests

  Small group Duration: 2 h Skips the ticket line

  Runs on the museum late-opening evenings. Six people is the hard cap, so it sells out earlier than the daytime tours.

  4.5 57 reviews on GetYourGuide

  Live price

  Check dates

• 02

  Best of Louvre Semi-Private Guided Tour with Pre-booked Tickets

  Semi-private Duration: 2 h Skips the ticket line

  Small enough that you can ask questions in front of the painting rather than shouting over a headset.

  5.0 193 reviews on GetYourGuide

  Live price

  Check dates

• 03

  Best of the Louvre Guided Tour with Pre-booked Ticket

  Private Duration: 2 h Skips the ticket line

  Highest-rated Louvre tour on the platform with a four-figure review count. Private option available.

  4.9 1,031 reviews on GetYourGuide

  Live price

  Check dates

Prices checked Aug 2026.

Questions people actually ask

Is the Louvre open at night?

Not at night, but it does open late twice a week. On Wednesday and Friday the museum runs until 21:00 instead of 18:00. Last entry is an hour before closing and staff start clearing rooms half an hour before, so a 19:00 arrival gives you a genuine two hours.

What is an after-hours tour of the Louvre?

In practice it means a guided visit during the Wednesday or Friday late opening, usually with a small capped group. It does not mean the museum is closed to everyone else. Genuinely private after-closing access exists only through corporate and patron programmes arranged with the museum directly, and is not sold as a tour.

Is the Louvre less crowded in the evening?

Noticeably. Coach groups and day-trippers leave in the late afternoon, and from about 18:30 the Denon wing thins out. The Salle des États stays busy but becomes navigable rather than solid.

Is Starry Night in the Louvre?

No. Van Gogh’s The Starry Night is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Louvre’s collection stops around 1848, so there are no Van Gogh paintings on display here at all — for Van Gogh in Paris you want the Musée d’Orsay.

Does the Louvre light up at night?

Yes, and you do not need a ticket to see it. The pyramid and the surrounding facades are lit after dark, and the Cour Napoléon stays open until 22:00 — an hour after the galleries close. It is the best free thing to do at the Louvre.

How far ahead should I book an evening tour?

Earlier than a daytime one. The small evening formats cap at six to eight people and there are only two late nights a week, so supply is a fraction of the daytime market. Four to six weeks in summer, two to three otherwise.

Which is better, Wednesday or Friday evening?

Wednesday. Friday evening picks up local visitors starting their weekend, and the first Friday of each month is free after 18:00, which fills the museum entirely. If your dates allow only Friday, avoid the first one of the month.

Are evening tickets more expensive?

No. Museum admission is the same price whatever time your slot is. Evening guided tours sometimes cost a little more than daytime equivalents because the groups are smaller, not because the ticket differs.

Read next

• Best private tours compared

  Every private format compared, evening options included.

• Hours, entrances, getting there

  Entrances, métro stops and what closes when.

• Louvre tickets

  Evening slots cost the same as daytime — here is how to book them.

• Mona Lisa

  The one room that stays busy even at 20:00.

• VIP tours

  What genuinely exclusive access costs, and who actually sells it.

Sources

• Musée du Louvre — hours and admission Late-opening days, last entry and courtyard hours. Checked 26 August 2026.
• Official Louvre ticketing Evening time slots and availability.

Photo credits

• Cour Napoléon at night - Louvre — Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
• Louvre Pyramid at night from the northwest (Unsplash) — Shubhagata Sengupta shxb, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Paris - The Musee Du Louvre main hall by night - 2884 — Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons