There is only one Mona Lisa, and there is only one museum fabulous enough to house it. The Louvre in Paris, France.

The Louvre began in 1190 as a castle and was remodeled in the 14th century by Charles V into a Royal Palace. It was continually updated, remodeled and enlarged, adding the Richelieu Wing, the Sully Wing and the Denon Wing. In 1678 the Court moved to Versailles, and the Palace buildings were reborn as a museum.

The Louvre collection grew exponentially with works seized from the Royal family during the Revolution, and continued to grow as Napoleon conquered and looted his way across Europe.

Today the Louvre has over seven miles of corridors on four levels that take you through seven exhibits. There is the Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities Exhibit, the Egyptian Antiquities Exhibit, the New Eastern Antiquities Exhibit, the Islamic Art Exhibit, the Sculptures Exhibit, the Decorative Arts Exhibit, and the Paintings Exhibit.

Over thirty-five thousand works on display (plus 380,000 objects) make the Louvre one of the largest museums in the world. The works included in the collections represent nearly ten thousand years of human creativity, from 8,000 BCE to 1848 AD.

You enter the Louvre via the pyramid structure in the Court of Napoleon. You are given a detailed map, and offered the opportunity to purchase an audio guide (which I highly recommend).

Our main interests were the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Greek ruins taken from the Acropolis. It took us more than 6 hours to locate all three of them, and that was with a map.

Our first stop was the Mona Lisa. Us and everyone else, it seemed. The crowd didn’t matter, it was worth waiting in line and milling through the crowd to see that famous hint of a smile.

The Venus de Milo was breathtaking, and the Greek ruins from the Acropolis were everything I imagined them to be. But we saw so much more it was overwhelming.

The buildings themselves are a work of art, having been the Royal Palace of the Kings the architecture and décor is amazing. The bottommost layer of the Louvre is the medieval castle. The Grand Salon of Napoleon III is the most current.

There are so many paintings in the Louvre they all begin to flow together. One stood out to me because there are two copies of it. The Coronation of Napoleon was copied, with one hanging in Versailles and the other in the Louvre. (I had seen it at Versailles the day before). The Winged Victory of Samothrace is beautifully presented on a landing at the top of a grand marble staircase, lit from overhead by a skylight.

While Doug and I spent only one day at the Louvre, one member of our group went back for three solid days. As we were all trapped in Paris due to the volcano eruption in Iceland, he had plenty of time and there is certainly plenty to admire.

If you visit Paris, you absolutely must tour the Louvre. I guarantee you won’t regret it.