Hours, entrances and getting there

Opening hours

The Louvre opens at 09:00 every day it opens at all, and the closing time is the part that varies.

• Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday: 09:00–18:00
• Wednesday and Friday: 09:00–21:00 — the two late nights
• Tuesday: closed all day
• Annual closures: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December. Other public holidays are open unless they fall on a Tuesday.

Two timings matter more than the closing hour. Last admission is 1 hour before closing, and staff start clearing rooms 30 minutes before closing. On a normal day that means the museum stops being usable at 17:30, not 18:00.

Note that the late opening now ends at 21:00. It previously ran to 21:45, and a great many pages still say so. These times were read off louvre.fr on 26 August 2026.

The four entrances, ranked

This is the highest-value thing on this page. The doors are not equivalent and the signage does not tell you so.

In detail, since the difference is worth thirty minutes:

• Pyramid (Cour Napoléon) — busiest. The main entrance and the one every map points at. Security screening happens outdoors, so the queue is exposed to the weather.
• Carrousel du Louvre (99 rue de Rivoli) — fastest for most people. Underground shopping arcade entrance. Security is indoors and the queue is usually a fraction of the pyramid’s. Reachable straight from the Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre métro without going outside.
• Porte des Lions — quiet but unreliable. South side, facing the Seine. Opens on a reduced schedule and closes without notice, so never plan around it alone.
• Passage Richelieu — ticket-holders and members. Between the Cour Napoléon and rue de Rivoli. Restricted to visitors who already hold a ticket, members and groups — which is exactly why guided tours use it.

Getting there

The museum occupies a former palace in the 1st arrondissement, between rue de Rivoli and the Seine.

• Métro: Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7). This is the one to aim for — it opens directly into the Carrousel arcade, so you reach security without stepping outside. In rain or in August heat that is worth planning around.
• Other métro: Louvre–Rivoli (line 1) and Pyramides (lines 7 and 14). Both are a short street walk away.
• RER: Châtelet–Les Halles (RER A, B and D), about a 10-minute walk.
• Bus: Lines 21, 24, 27, 39, 68, 69, 72, 81 and 95.
• River shuttle: Louvre stop, on the Seine river-shuttle route, useful in summer and slow in the best way.
• On foot: ten minutes from the Palais Royal, fifteen from Châtelet, twenty along the river from the Musée d’Orsay across the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor.

Check live service on RATP before travelling. Line 1 is automated and reliable; line 7 is neither, particularly at weekends.

Inside: the things nobody tells you

• Use the cloakroom. Free, under the pyramid, and no suitcases. Three hours of carrying a coat is three hours of being irritable about art.
• No re-entry. One entry per ticket. Plan a single continuous visit and eat before or after.
• Your ticket covers the Musée Eugène-Delacroix on the same day, ten minutes across the river. Almost nobody uses it and it is the calmest hour of a Paris museum day.
• Rooms close without notice. Staffing and installation work close individual galleries daily. The museum posts the day’s closures at the entrance — read the board before you plan a route around one object.
• Large bags and tripods are not permitted. Photography without flash is fine in the permanent collections.
• Food. The Carrousel food court below the museum is cheaper and quicker than the internal cafés.

What you can realistically see

The building holds roughly 35,000 objects on display. Time budgets, honestly:

• Two hours: one wing. Denon, for the famous things. Do not add a second.
• Three hours: the highlights route across two wings, with one sit-down.
• Half a day: two wings properly, or one wing plus a department you actually care about.
• A full day: only worth it if you already know what you want. Undirected, it produces fatigue rather than memory.

If you have two hours and no plan, follow the self-guided route rather than wandering. The building punishes improvisation.

The honest balance

Questions people actually ask

What time does the Louvre open?

09:00 every day it is open. It closes at 18:00 on Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and stays open until 21:00 on Wednesday and Friday. It is closed all day on Tuesday, and on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.

What is the nearest métro station to the Louvre?

Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre, on lines 1 and 7. It is the only station with a direct underground passage into the Carrousel du Louvre entrance, so you can reach the museum without going outside. Louvre–Rivoli on line 1 and Pyramides on lines 7 and 14 are both close but require a short walk on the street.

Which entrance to the Louvre is best?

The Carrousel du Louvre at 99 rue de Rivoli for most visitors: security is indoors, the queue is shorter, and it connects straight to the métro. The pyramid is the most famous and the slowest. The Passage Richelieu is for ticket-holders, members and guided groups.

Is the Louvre underground?

Partly. The entrance hall beneath the pyramid is underground, and it connects to the Carrousel du Louvre shopping arcade below ground level. The galleries themselves are in the palace above, spread across three wings and several floors.

How do you get into the Louvre without queueing?

Book a timed slot, arrive at the Carrousel entrance rather than the pyramid, and go at 09:00 on a Thursday or after 18:30 on a Wednesday. Nothing removes security screening.

What can you see at the Louvre in 2 hours?

One wing, done properly. The realistic two-hour route is the Denon wing: the Winged Victory on the Daru staircase, the Italian paintings in the Grande Galerie, the Mona Lisa, and one large French canvas. Adding Egyptian antiquities to that turns two hours into a march.

Is there a cloakroom at the Louvre?

Yes, under the pyramid in the main hall, and it is free. Large luggage and suitcases are not accepted. Using it is worth the five minutes — carrying a coat and bag through the Denon wing in summer is genuinely unpleasant.

Can you re-enter the Louvre on the same ticket?

No. Admission permits one entry, so plan a single continuous visit. The exception is the Musée Eugène-Delacroix across the river, which your Louvre ticket covers on the same day.

Read next

• Louvre tickets

  Prices, where to buy and how far ahead slots go on sale.

• Louvre visitor guide

  A three-hour route through the three wings.

• Evening & after-hours

  The two late nights, and why 19:00 is the best slot of the week.

• Mona Lisa

  Where it hangs and when the room is bearable.

• Family tours

  Step-free routes, food and realistic timings with children.

Sources

• Musée du Louvre — hours and admission Opening hours, closures, entrances and courtyard times. Checked 26 August 2026.
• Official Louvre ticketing Timed entry slots.
• RATP Métro, RER and bus routes and live service information.

Photo credits

• Louvre Museum Wikimedia Commons — Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Détail de la Pyramide Inversée du Louvre (40087298971) — VillageHero from Ulm, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Paris 75001 Place du Carrousel Pyramide inversée exterior 01a — David McSpadden from Daly City, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons