The Louvre - Exteriors

The Louvre - Paris, France

I can't believe a month has already passed since we left on our trip. We got back this morning after nearly 24 hours spent on planes and in transit and needless to say, I feel like I've been hit over the head.

I'm not sure how to start processing and blogging about all the images from our trip. I'm leaning towards randomly picking a location for each post with the aim of keeping the blog a bit more interesting. If anyone has a better idea please let me know. Now I've got around a 110 GB worth of RAW files to go through... At least I'll have something to do in my spare time for the next year or so!

I think the Louvre Museum in Paris is an appropriate place to kick things off. In this post I've decided to only cover the exterior of the Louvre. I'll go through the interior (Yep, photography is allowed inside as long as the flash is not used) in another post at a later date.

The panorama above was created by stitching 10 separate images.  I used the tripod and a remote shutter release to minimise camera shake.

Read on for more images and info.

The forecourt of the Louvre - Paris, France

This image is of the Sully Pavilion with part of the glass pyramid, designed by I.M. Pei, in the foreground. I wanted to capture the exterior of the museum in the night as, like most of the monuments in Paris, it is very well lit. It was a short stroll to the museum from our apartment in Le Marais, which was convenient. The entrance to the Museum, for those who have not pre-purchased their tickets, is through the pyramid.

The Glass Pyramid at the Louvre - Paris, France

The queue for tickets can be quite long, especially at the start on the day. It starts at the pyramid (middle of the panoramic shot above) and extends out to the Denon pavilion (this includes a section of the queue which doubles up on itself about four or five times). It then extends along the Denon pavilion, through the Sully pavilion and into a second enclosed court yard, the Cour Carree. We bought our tickets online and sauntered into the museum from a separate entrance without standing in any queues. Buying tickets online is slightly more expensive but it is worth it as you save a lot of time once there.

The Sully Pavilion at the Louvre - Paris, France

This shot of the Sully pavillion was taken from near the pyramid. The main doors, which are closed in this shot, lead on to the second courtyard mentioned above. The forecourt of the Louvre is accessible at all hours of the day to anyone. We even rode through it on a night bike tour.

The Pyramid at the Louvre - Paris, France

This shot was taken from the steps of the Sully pavilion. Walking straight from this point takes you through the Tuileries gardens to the Champs-Elysees and the Arc du Triomphe. The Denon pavilion is on the left of the image and the Richelieu pavilion is on the right.