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logistics and timing for L'Orangerie and Louvre

Hello-

I have tickets to Louvre for 3:00 pm May 9th (planning to spend between 2-3 hours). We also want to see L'Orangerie. Not huge museum people, but certainly an interest in the basics and for sure water lilies is high on my list! I would also like to have a lunch at La Soufflé. So-would this make sense and not feel too rushed. L'Orangerie reservations for 11:00-spend say an hour), lunch reservations for 1:00 ish and then Louvre at 3:00? I also want to see Gallerie Layfette so perhaps head there after energy pending for some shopping and the views? Love to hear your thoughts!

Posted by
680 posts

Adding the Galleries Lafayette after the Louvre could be too much. In fact, they may be closed by the time you finish at the Louvre (It is huge, and you will probably spend three hours there to see just one wing of it.) and get to the department store. A visit to the Opera Garnier (definitely worthwhile) would pair better with the Galleries Lafayette. They are really close to each other. Together they would take just one morning or afternoon, and you could have a nice cafe lunch nearby either before or after your visits, and still have a half day left for other sights.

I don't know where La Souffle is...I hope nearby to L'Orangerie and/or Louvre. If so, it is doable. If in another area, you will be doing some doubling back.
Have a great time!

Posted by
3710 posts

La Souffle is about a 10-minute walk from L'Orangerie and a 15-minute walk to the Louvre. I think that you will be a tiny bit rushed at the L'Orangerie because it will take you a few minutes to orient yourselves. I think you should arrive at 10 or 10:30 and see if they let you in early. At La Souffle I think lunch will be a little less than two hours because the food arrives relatively quickly. I too think that Galeries Lafayette is a bit too much to add to the day if you do not want to feel rushed but that would be for me. For my sister, who loves going from place to place and having a strict schedule and has major FOMO, this day would be ideal.

Posted by
4418 posts

Prepare carefully for your Louvre visit, it's immense. Know beforehand what you want to see and get there smartly, even then you might get distracted or stuck in crowds and end up spending more like 4 or 5 hours.

Lafayette is a nice space but ultimately it's just a department store, free views from the roof.

Posted by
41 posts

I paired Galleries Lafayette and Printemps with my Louvre day. It didn’t really work. As Pp pointed out, the louvre will probably require three hours. (We thought 1.5-2 because we had a kid in tow but ended up at 3.) We stopped to rest our feet in one of the nearby passages, then by the time we got up to Galeries, it was pretty late and Printemps was closing so we missed that too. We took a tour in the souvenir floor and called it a day but it’s worth more time and exploring.

Posted by
13989 posts

Depending on what the rest of your visit looks like and what the weather is, you might consider eating in one of the restaurants along the Tuileries. I have enjoyed Cafe des Marrionniers under the trees on lovely days. You could also walk all the way to the Louvre end of the Tuileries and get a sandwich from the Eric Kayser kiosk right next to the Carrousel Arch, then backtrack a bit and sit on one of the iconic green chairs in the garden.

https://tinyurl.com/5urn6pxu

IF you don't have your Orangerie tickets I'd go for earlier if you do plan to do lunch at a restaurant. To me this feels like you will be rushed for lunch even if you are not huge museum people. BTW, I have tried to get into the Orangerie earlier than my timed entry and had no luck with that.

Are there particular things you want to see at the Louvre? Here is a link to the map (which you can pick up at the bottom of the escalator if you come in the pyramid entrance).

https://api-www.louvre.fr/sites/default/files/2023-07/BAT-EN%20LOUVRE_PlanG%20-%20MAI%202023.pdf

I like to visit the Rembrandt's and the Vermeers on the 2nd level of the Richelieu wing and this area is NOT crowded. There are many things to see that are not in the jammed up areas around the Mona Lisa if you are not into crowds.