Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World's Greatest Museum

by Elaine Sciolino

Overview

A former New York Times Paris bureau chief explores the Louvre, offering an intimate journey of discovery and revelation.

The Louvre is the most famous museum in the world, attracting millions of visitors every year with its masterpieces. In Adventures in the Louvre, Elaine Sciolino immerses herself in this magical space and helps us fall in love with what was once a forbidding fortress.

Exploring galleries, basements, rooftops, and gardens, Sciolino demystifies the Louvre, introducing us to her favorite artworks, both legendary and overlooked, and to the people who are the museum’s lifeblood: the curators, the artisans producing frames and engravings, the builders overseeing restorations, the firefighters protecting the aging structure.

Blending investigative journalism, travelogue, history, and memoir, Sciolino walks her readers through the museum’s front gates and immerses them in its irresistible, engrossing world of beauty and culture. Adventures in the Louvre reveals the secrets of this grand monument of Paris and basks in its timeless, seductive power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324021407
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2025
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	69,114
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Elaine Sciolino, contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times, is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Only Street in Paris, as well as The Seine and La Seduction. She lives in Paris.

Editorial Reviews

"Elaine Sciolino writes with the curiosity of a journalist, the humanity of a storyteller, and the joyful disrespect of an American. She is amused and ironic, but always impartial as she describes the glories, oddities and flaws of the Louvre. Alongside the masterpieces, she discovers the curators, guards, technicians, and firefighters who maintain them. With this enchanting book, we will find our way in a grand museum whose meanderings reflect the strange and glorious history of France."

Gérard Araud

"Sciolino is the Louvre whisperer. With wit, charm and a scholar’s bent, she walks us through the galleries, shining her light on beloved masterpieces as well as on treasures tucked deep into gallery corners, the ones that are easy to miss but that can be revelations even to those who know the museum well. Habitués will make discoveries in these pages and first-timers will count themselves lucky to have this book as a companion. And if food is your passion—it’s mine!—you’ll revel in Sciolino’s tour of the Louvre as a sumptuous feast."

Dorie Greenspan

"I have read many books about museums, but Elaine Sciolino's stands out. This is essential reading for anyone visiting the Louvre—for those who already know it inside out and for those who have never been. You will get to know one of the most important museums in the world in ways that are illuminating, thought-provoking, surprising, amusing. A marvel of observation and insight."

Xavier Salomon

"People are always asking the best way to "do" the Louvre, and I've finally found it: with Elaine Sciolino's Adventures in the Louvre by your side. An indispensable, enchanting companion reminding us that the art world's most intimidating institution is also a lot of fun."

Lauren Collins

"In its manifold splendors, the Louvre gave Henry James something of a panic attack. He did not have Elaine Sciolino, but we do: She has written a rich, rewarding introduction to the greatest collection of art in the world, from its trio of celebrated grandes dames to its hidden treasures, from its rooftop and tunnels to its dedicated fire brigade and three rooms of empty frames. A spirited, sumptuous book that makes the Louvre feel welcoming—even if you arrive on a Tuesday, when it’s closed."

Stacy Schiff

★ 2024-12-13
A grand tour of a museum like no other.

Deftly weaving history and memoir, formerNew York Times Paris bureau chief Sciolino offers a spirited journey through France’s most storied museum, the Louvre. At various times a fortress, a public inn, an arsenal, a prison, a mint, and a workplace for artisans, the king’s palace became a “people’s museum” as a result of the French Revolution, open to all. Its original royal collection quickly grew, augmented with art from the homes of guillotined aristocrats, Versailles and other palaces, churches, and monasteries. Added to and remodeled as it expanded, with artworks gained through conquest and plunder, it became a sprawling edifice, with over 400 rooms in an assortment of architectural and decorative styles. The galleries, stretching half a mile, exhibit some 30,000 of its half million holdings; it employs more than 2,300 people, including curators, restorers, guards, and guides, working on 25 different levels. Sciolino reports on her conversations with many of them as she encountered specific pieces of art (theMona Lisa, theVenus de Milo, theWinged Victory of Samothrace, to name a few), or she follows themes such as food, animals, jewels, and even shoes. The Louvre has so many shoes in its paintings that it published a coffee-table book on footwear. Sciolino takes unexpected paths to find quiet corners: a small collection of Impressionists (the bulk being at the Musée d’Orsay), tribal art, and one of the world’s largest collections of frames. Although the Louvre does not offer a queer-themed tour, unlike other major museums, Sciolino notes its extensive queer art collection. Her celebration of a beloved venue also highlights outposts in the French city of Lens, in Abu Dhabi, and in Métro stations featuring a host of reproductions. Illustrated with 53 black-and-white photos.

An intimate visit with a generous, genial guide.

Kirkus Reviews