One of my favorite places to immerse myself in French culture when I visit Paris is the Louvre.  Every time I walk up to the former royal fortress, I am filled with awe, despite the long lines of tourists around me.  At the same time, I feel proud that an American’s work of art is on display right in the front courtyard entrance (Ieoh Ming Pei’s glass pyramid) and yet, inspired by the French and world history I am about to discover.  For this reason, I was pleased to read that the Pennsylvania-based Annenberg Foundation has just donated approximately a million euros to the museum in order to make it more user and especially kid-friendly.

Since 1793, the Louvre has housed one of the most important museums in Paris and in fact, in the world.  And this is not just because da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is showcased there along with the Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace.  In all, it features over 35,000 works of art.  There are exceptional examples of Oriental, Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities and you can find sculptures from the Middle Ages to our times, paintings representing all the European schools, Islamic art, sculptures, prints and drawings, French crown jewels and even furniture.
One of the goals of the museum when it opened was to be a learning place for future artists and you can still find students and copyists sitting down in front of a piece hunched over a half-finished sketch, pencil in hand.  The museum also offers concerts, films, lectures and symposiums, readings and performances, music on film, thematic programs and workshops for both adults and children.
The Louvre sees over 6 million visitors from every country in the world every year.  Each time you visit the museum, you see something you haven’t seen before, feel something different and experience a sense of international belonging with all the languages, people and cultures surrounding you.

You can take online virtual tours at the museum’s official site.