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Enjoy the Louvre Museum

Newspaper section: Life
by Courtney Traub (Paris Travel Guide)

                     

             As museums go, the Louvre in Paris is quite simply a mammoth. The word "museum" may even be unfitting when it comes to the Louvre: the collections are so vast, diverse, and breathtaking that visitors may have the impression of navigating a maze of distinct artistic and cultural worlds. 

 

Louvre Museum
the glass pyramid is the new main entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Housed in the Palais du Louvre (Louvre Palace), the former seat of French royalty, the Louvre emerged in the 12th century as a medieval fortress, slowly evolving toward its status as a public arts museum during the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Since then, it has become the globe's most-visited museum, and an enduring symbol  of French excellence in the arts.

         Spanning eight thematic departments and 35,000 pieces of artwork dating from the antiquity to the early modern period, the museum's permanent collection includes masterpieces by European masters such as Da Vinci, Delacroix, Vermeer, and Rubens, as well as unsurpassed Greco-Roman, Egyptian, or Islamic arts collections. Frequent temporary exhibits often highlight particular artists or movements, and are almost always worthwhile.

Source : http://gofrance.about.com/