Skipping the Lines at the Louvre

For anyone living in Paris, even temporarily, visiting the Musée du Louvre is a must-do. It’s the museum you take visiting friends to, the museum your classes visit, the museum you think of when you hear the word museum. Anyone who’s visited the Louvre has had this experience: the endless rooms of paintings and sculpture, the grand staircases and ceilings of the palace interiors, and, unavoidably, the horde of tourists pressed shoulder to shoulder trying to get a photo of themselves with the Mona Lisa.

You cannot see everything in one visit. With more than 35,000 objects, including 7,500 paintings, spread across more than 780,000 square feet of the Louvre’s exhibition space, you are unlikely to see everything even in multiple visits. Luckily for students studying in Paris interested in art, that scale becomes something more manageable with the convenience of the museum’s location and free time. This doesn’t mean that the experience of visiting the Louvre is without its difficulties, though.

The difficulty begins outside. The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, drawing 8 to 9 million visitors every year. On average, that means more than 20,000 people visit daily. During peak tourist season, the lines at the glass pyramid stretch across the courtyard, and even with timed-entry tickets, you can often be forced to wait up to an hour to pass through security and enter the museum.

Students under the age of 26 who are residents of the European Union qualify for free admission to the Louvre’s permanent collections and to most public museums in the city. But free admission doesn’t eliminate the need to reserve a time slot, nor does it remove the wait. For many students, that extra layer of planning — booking ahead and committing to a specific hour — creates friction. Visiting the museum becomes something you have to coordinate and schedule ahead of time, sometimes days in advance, which kills the spontaneity and convenience the Louvre’s central location should offer.

There is, however, a solution to this. For about €22 (roughly $26) per year, young adults can purchase the Carte des Amis du Louvre, an annual membership issued by the museum’s supporting association, the Société des Amis du Louvre. The card allows unlimited entry for 12 months and access through a members’ entrance, most notably the Richelieu entrance, which allows you to bypass ticket lines and specific time commitments.

For Viktor, a student at Sciences Po, the process was straightforward. “It took me maybe ten minutes online,” he said. “I picked up the card on my next visit and started using it right away. It was much easier than I expected.”

What the Carte des Amis du Louvre Includes

The youth membership tier is available to young adults under the age of 26. For roughly the cost of a single standard ticket, members receive:

• Unlimited entry to the Louvre’s permanent collections and temporary exhibitions for one year
• Priority access through a members’ entrance
• Discounts at museum shops and cafés

For students attending the American University of Paris who are interested in art, it is definitely worth purchasing. You are purchasing a full-year entrance pass to the Musée du Louvre for the equivalent of a standard one-time entrance ticket.

Diana, a Ukrainian graduate student in Paris who works part-time as a private guide at the Louvre and leads weekend tours at the Château de Chantilly, said she recommends the membership to her peers who are interested in art. “I see how long the regular lines can get,” she said. “If you live here and want to come more than once, the membership just makes sense.”

How to Get the Card Online: Step by Step

Step 1: Visit the official Amis du Louvre website.
Navigate to the membership section of the Société des Amis du Louvre website. Confirm you are selecting the youth (“Jeune”) membership tier.

Step 2: Create an account.
Enter your full name, date of birth, email address, and mailing information. Use the name on your passport or official ID.

Step 3: Provide proof of age if required.
You may be asked to upload identification verifying your eligibility for the youth rate. This is straightforward. You simply upload a photograph of your ID showing your date of birth. 

Step 4: Complete payment.
Pay the annual fee of €22, using a credit or debit card. You should receive confirmation by email.

Step 5: Collect or activate your card.
You will receive a digital confirmation immediately and then collect your physical card at the Louvre’s membership desk in the lobby of the museum. Bring your official ID when you do.

The card becomes valid for 12 months from the date of purchase. That’s it. 

Once you have the card, the ease and convenience of visiting the Louvre improves considerably. Instead of having to book a visit to the museum online, at a fixed time and date, you can simply walk right up to the Richelieu entrance on the Rue de Rivoli side of the building, across from Palais-Royale-Musée du Louvre metro station, show a guard your card and walk right in. There is still security screening, but the line is significantly shorter than at other entrances.

Once in the museum, you can enter any of the three wings by simply scanning the barcode on your card. This allows you to leave and re-enter wings as you wish.

For students living in Paris, that difference can change the way the Louvre fits into your life and experience in Paris. A quick visit with friends on the weekend or in the evening on certain weekdays becomes feasible. An hour spent in the museum does not require advance planning. The museum stops feeling like a once-a-year obligation and starts feeling more like a place in the city to visit with friends whenever you’re in the mood to go.