Night at the Museum: A Look through the Louvre
I recently finished reading The American* by Henry James. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the novel—I suspected a story about an American in England. All I knew of Henry James is that he was an American that spent a lot of time in the Mother Country. As I read the opening lines, I was surprised to find myself in a familiar location from my years living in Paris: le Musée du Louvre. Specifically, the novel begins in the Salon Carré. I looked online to see what that particular room looked like and then combed through my own pictures of visits to the iconic museum. Surely at some point I’d found myself wandering into that salon. It is not a high-quality picture, but I did find a phone snap from March 2018.
“On a brilliant day in May, in the year 1868, a gentleman was reclining at his ease on the great circular divan which at that period ocupied the centre of the Salon Carré, in the Museum of the Louvre. This commodious ottoman has since been removed, to the extreme regret of all weak-kneed lovers of the fine arts...”
That’s quite a good opening line, right? The American tells the story of Christopher Newman, who has come to Europe after accruing a large fortune, to broaden his mind and find a wife. The significance of the surname Newman only occurred to me when I’d finished the book. He’s a new man in so many ways, in particular to the aristocratic (and quite snobbish) French family he seeks to unite with by marriage.
When I first moved to Paris with my family we purchased a year-long membership to the Louvre. Our apartment building was within walking distance, and I’m a homeschooling mom, so it seemed like a good choice. My membership card enabled me to walk in a side entrance to the museum quickly and easily. You could avoid the long lines of tourists waiting to enter and purchase tickets. But my best tip for enjoying a visit to the Louvre is to go in the evening! There is usually at least one day of the week where opening hours extend; at the moment it appears to be open until 9:45 p.m. on Fridays. That is right in the middle of Parisian dinner hours, and it is a wonderful time to meander through the capacious and ornate halls in the quiet amongst much fewer people than you’ll find in the morning and afternoon hours. I went one May evening from about 7:30-9 p.m., and it was my most memorable visit.
The daylight hours are lengthening by late May when a friend and I walked the length of Tuileries on our way to the Louvre. Since I can get overwhelmed reading all the plaques in museums, I made a conscious choice to just wander slowly, snapping phone pictures of anything that captured my attention. On this trip in particular it was the quirky and funny, as well as the beautiful. The monkey antiquarian and the solder on his smoke break make me smile every time.
The next best part of the night were the views from the museum windows. My favorite part was watching one of the many exercise groups that workout around the city run laps around the courtyard and do wall-sits against the palace walls. The courtyard of the Louvre could make a wall-sit much more bearable, I think.
If you take my advice and visit the Louvre at night, you’ll get a walk home in the lovely Parisian twilight afterward with all the lights glowing warmly around the buildings. The city itself is its own kind of museum.
For a few more pictures around the Louvre, see the Paris Picture Gallery.
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