Musée du Louvre

On a particularly hot day in Paris, we decided to spend the afternoon exploring the Louvre. Museums have always been a huge source of inspiration for me and this one immeasurably surpassed my expectations.

We knew we couldn't feasibly tour it all in one visit--the place is seriously enormous!--so we started out in search of Cupid & Psyche and then wandered over to find the Mona Lisa. We got lost along the way but had loads of fun figuring out where to turn next. We ended up touring several different floors, thus seeing more than we originally planned, which was great.

After about three hours, we decided we'd gotten our tickets' worth and headed out for a stroll and cold drink in the (very sunny) Tuileries gardens. All in all, an afternoon well-spent.

Five fun facts about the Louvre:

-It is the largest and most visited museum in the world.
-The oldest artworks date back over 7,000 (!) years.
-Before it became a museum in 1793, the palace originally served as a fortress and later a residence to multiple french kings.
-It takes 2,000+ employees to maintain the museum and all of the art.
-The collection is comprised of over 1 million works of art, of which 35,000 are on display at any given time.