Guided Tour at the Louvre

The Louvre is huge, and any attempt to cover it in a reasonable amount of time is futile. With that said, the Denon Wing is the wing of the museum where most of the familiar pieces of art are contained. Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, the Raft of the Medusa, the Da Vinci pieces, and Liberty Leading the People are all contained within a rather small (relatively) area of the museum.

I am an art lover but I am museumed out after a couple of hours, and the crowds in the museum are epic, making extended stays rather unpleasant. I don't know what a private tour entails, but the RS audio tour is a good one. BTW, early is better, especially if you want to see the Mona Lisa without a room full of selfy-stick peak baggers.

But since you will have a Museum Pass you can drop in to the Louvre more than once, making shorter visits (check out evening schedules) After two hours I'm ready for a break in the cafeteria.

A third option worth considering is a private guided tour with your group by Paris Muse (www.parismuse.com), an organization that uses Art Instructors and graduate students - experts who can provide extra insight to what you’re seeing, make the most of your time there, and add extra value to your visit. They’re not cut-rate cheap, but we’ve used them a number of times for museums around Paris, and can’t recommend them highly enough for their excellent guides and great value. They tend to focus on a section or theme, rather than trying to see everything at once. check out their Website for details about their various tours.

I believe the museum has a list of the highlights and that's what we saw when we went. We were in line with our pass when the museum opened and went straight to the Mona Lisa and actually got 5 minutes with only about 10 other tourists just looking at her. However after two hours we were spent mentally and physically because the museum is very crowded, even in March. With our pass we were lucky enough to go two days. We went the next day about two hours before they closed and it was less crowded and we could catch up on what we missed.

On the Louvre website there are multiple "visitor trails" under the "activities and tours" tab. These are terrific and will lead you from spot to spot throughout the museum. They generally run 1.5 hours (although you may go shorter or longer depending on whether you stop to look at something else along the way).
My daughter and I did the "Lion Hunt" which were all sculptures in the Richelieu wing, and the Masterpieces (a bit more scattered).
Best of all, this is free.

Yes, the introductory tour offered by the Louvre art historians is excellent. They will give you a headset so you can hear the commentary clearly despite the crowds. If you have the opportunity to take the tour, you should. You can always follow it with the RS tour or the Trails on the Louvre website afterwards or on another day. I took dozens of classes and tours on various subjects with the art history staff at the Louvre back when they offered a large program, albeit in French. I recommend the introductory tour in whatever language. I spent six months studying in the Louvre and have been dozens of additional times on visits but still feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the Museum and its collection.

The Louvre has a great free app called « My visit to the Louvre ». You can customized by categories what interests you as well as the length of time you plan to visit (under 2 hours or over 2 hours). It then makes suggestions for you and tells you exactly where each work of art is located. You can also look at the floor plan and map out your visit ahead of time. In addition, there are several audio guides that you can download. I choose the museums masterpieces and it cost $.99. I really enjoyed exploring this app. There is a LOT of useful information contained in it. It is good to have a plan walking into the Louvre because as everyone has said, it is overwhelming!!! I also agree that most of the famous masterpieces are located in the Denon wing so that is a good place to start.

All of the suggestions are good approaches.

In addition, spend some time on the Louvre website, to see if there are particular artists or works of art that you want to see. Then make sure that you know where in the museum they are located. The museum employees are very good at being able to tell visitors where various pieces are.

And while the Louvre can be busy, it depends on what you want to see. For example, the old foundations of the city are usually not crowded. Also, the section with the Dutch masters usually isn't terribly crowded (I go to visit the Vermeers), and neither is the room where their one Bosch is located.

I love art, but I get "art'd" out too. On one visit, we went for several hours, left and had a leisurely lunch at a creperie, then returned for another couple of hours.

Thank you all for the suggestions - especially the Visitor Trails and the Louvre app. I did not realize the introductory tour was provided by their own art historians. I really like the idea of someone explaining items to me as opposed to me just reading a card or description in a brochure. I really appreciate the insight and options!