We’re spending three months in Barcelona with a few mini trips squeezed in! You can see our Barcelona posts here, and more Paris posts here.

While in Paris, one of our bucket list items for the boys was to visit the Louvre. They are museum-lovers through and through, and they 100% know DaVinci and the Mona Lisa, so it made sense to give them this memory as part of the trip.

What I wasn’t prepared for was how their current reading binge would impact our visit!

The Louvre is HUGE

Ok, first things first. I had been to the Louvre once before, but I didn’t really remember much about that visit. Calder had been a few times, and the visit he kept telling us about was the time he was there with his dad, and his dad kept “pretending that they were lost”.

We laughed at that with our kids, then proceeded to spend 75% of our time completely LOST. ha! Now we’re thinking that Papa Frank was actually lost during their visit.

Pretty sure we were lost down that decorative well for a good 40 minutes.

The building itself looks straightforward, but it’s a maze that’s hard to understand let alone explain. There are times when we were sure we started on one floor, but somehow found ourselves on another. There were other times when we would hit a dead end where we were sure there was supposed to be doorway.

At one point, it would have been helpful if a giant came along and lifted the lid on the whole thing. More than once we had to look out the windows to get clues about where we were!

Want to know where any of these beautiful pieces are? Ha!

The Greek (and possibly Roman) Antiquities

Honestly, at this point in our visit, I had no clue where we were. But not Luc, he was ready to step up to the podium for his lectures on Greek mythology.

Something I learned during this museum visit: Luc has become a Greek mythology master! He’s listened to Greeking Out (on repeat) for years and read the Percy Jackson series before our visit… now it was our turn to learn.

It was his time to shine. It there was a character he recognized, we were told the full story. And then we were quizzed. I failed, but he didn’t give up. He told the story again. And at that point, I realized that if I didn’t start paying attention, we were definitely spending the night in the museum.

Of course my heart was bursting with pride. And I also checked off “history lessons” as being complete for our homeschool year, because, I got nothing on this kid.

The Mona Lisa

Before going to the Louvre, this was the one specific piece of art that the boys asked to see. After spending hours with the Greeks and an eternity lost in the maze of great halls, we finally took our chances and visited Mona.

As expected, the room was packed! But, I also think that added to the excitement for the boys. I didn’t fight the crowds, but they did a great job of sneaking through and making their way to the front!

They already knew that the painting was small, so they weren’t surprised by its size. They were definitely happy to have seen it in person, and afterwards we had a fun conversation about how the whole museum is filled with great/important/special art, but the “famous” piece attracts a crowd.

Finish Your Visit with Macarons in the Gardens

If you’ve made it this far, we have the perfect ending to a Louvre visit. Pick up a mixed box of macarons on our way out of the museum, and sample them while relaxing in the nearby gardens.

Sampling small treats and foods in the places where they’re from is such a fun memory to make on our travels. We shared little tasting bites from the six in our box, and then everyone gobbled the rest of their favorite ones.

Afterwards, the boys wanted more macarons! We didn’t get any more on that visit, but we did talk about how we have a macaron cookbook at home, and we can try making our own. I’m sure we’re going to do it, and I’m sure that every time we do, we’ll think about this fun day at the museum. <3