To travel halfway across the world and not visit the Louvre Museum would be senseless. The museum is on all the “must-see” list of destinations if you are travelling to Paris, right up there with the Eiffel Tower and the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Of course we went. Actually, the Louvre was the first tourist destination we saw. You can’t go to Paris and not see the Louvre: how many times in my lifetime had I been told.

To visit the Louvre is about waiting. We paid in advance for a museum pass that would allow us access to any number of museums and galleries in the Paris. The Louvre was one of the few that required a time-entry. We were slated for 11 a.m. Along with a huge mass of humanity, we began lining up well more than an hour before.

During this waiting period, you are allowed all that time to marvel at the historical and architectural gem and the stunning glass pyramid that marks entry to a journey of art and culture.

What one must remember about the Louvre is that it is a museum and not an art gallery. Yes, there is art – plenty of art -from textiles to sculpture and, of course, paintings. What one must remember about the Louvre is that it is more an example of time that has past and is laid out in such a fashion that you must walk through the eras.

It is not quiet as a gallery is more prone to be. It is filled with people (all those people who had lined up ahead of me) and there are lots of people there more to see the museum than a gallery. Art, at the Louvre, is viewed more as history than it is art. The Louvre Museum is presented more by era than by style.

I was, throughout the morning, impatient.

Let’s face it: I was there to see the Mona Lisa. How many times, in my lifetime, had I been told that I had to see Mona if I were ever to go to Paris. 

The painting is important to the Louvre: it might be the only reason some people go the museum. There are endless signs throughout the amazing structure marking the way to “Mona Lisa” (Room 711 of the Denon Wing). It seems you must walk miles through all those people. 

Mona Lisa itself is iconic. A Renaissance portrait pained by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1519. Shrouded in a deep sense of mystery, Mona Lisa is celebrated for her enigmatic smile.

The Mona Lisa is larger in legend than she was in size (30 x 21 inches). Wikipedia lists the Mona Lisa as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung abut, (and) the most parodied work of art in the world.” It is so.

The Mona Lisa is beautiful beyond words. I’m not sure I could describe her as wonderfully as those before me have, but she is more than memorable. Beyond words. No, I did not get as close to her as I would have liked. Even after I tried to inch further into the crowd ahead of me, I knew I would never come within conversational distance.

All I could do was bask in her smile and admire the work as it seemed like thousands of people passed by, each one lifting a cell phone to capture the moment. I did, and the moment is full of people, and cell phones, and Mona gazing beautifully at her admirers. I was one of many.

Mona Lisa was well worth the trip.

© 2026 j.g. lewis