What day is the Louvre closed?

I got this wrong on my first trip to Paris. I’d built a three-day plan, penciled in the Louvre for day two, and only realized the night before that day two was a Tuesday. It was too late to reshuffle much of anything, and I ended up doing a rushed, half-hearted version of the Louvre instead of skipping it cleanly and doing something else with the morning.

So here’s the answer, stated as plainly as I can: the Louvre is closed every Tuesday. Not the first Tuesday of the month, not some Tuesdays — every Tuesday, all year, no exceptions I’ve ever come across. If you’re building a short Paris itinerary around the museum, block that day out before anything else goes on the calendar.

Why this catches people out

The confusion isn’t really about the Louvre itself. It’s about the other big museums in Paris closing on a different day, and travelers mixing them up while juggling a dozen tabs of research at 11pm.

The Musée d’Orsay closes on Mondays. The Palace of Versailles also closes on Mondays. So if you’ve read up on either of those first, it’s easy to assume the Louvre follows the same pattern and quietly slot it in on a Monday when it’s actually the one museum that’s open that day — while Orsay and Versailles are the ones shut.

I’m not going to get into the details of Orsay’s or Versailles’s hours here; they each deserve their own page and I’d rather not repeat half-remembered facts about sites I’m not focused on in this one. The point that matters for this piece is narrower: Louvre = Tuesday closed. Orsay and Versailles = Monday closed. Two different days, two different museums, and mixing them up is the single most common planning mistake I hear about from people packing a lot into a short Paris trip.

A simple way I’ve started thinking about it: if my week includes both the Louvre and one of the other two, I try not to put them back-to-back on the calendar without double-checking which one falls on which day. A five-minute check now saves a wasted morning later.

The bigger trap: showing up without a time slot

Honestly, the closing day isn’t even the detail that trips up the most people in practice. It’s this one: you need a reserved entry time slot to get into the Louvre, on every day it’s open — Wednesday through Monday. This isn’t optional, and it isn’t something you can talk your way around at the door.

I’ve seen visitors assume that owning a Paris Museum Pass means they can just walk up whenever. It doesn’t. The pass covers admission, but it doesn’t replace the requirement to book a specific arrival window in advance. Turn up without one, pass in hand or not, and you’re either turned away or sent to stand in a line that the time-slot system exists specifically to avoid.

This matters more than the Tuesday closure for one simple reason: forgetting the closing day means picking a different day. Forgetting the time slot means potentially not getting in at all, or burning an hour in a queue that shouldn’t exist. If I only remember one rule from this whole page, it’s this one.

I won’t get into museum pass pricing or entry costs here — those numbers change and belong on the Paris Museum Pass guide rather than repeated (and possibly outdated) on this one. What I will say: whichever route you use to get in, book your date and time window before you land in Paris, not after.

How I’d plan around it now

Knowing both of these things — the Tuesday closure and the mandatory time slot — changed how I build a Paris schedule. A few habits that have served me well since:

• I check the day of the week for the Louvre before I fix any other museum day around it, since Orsay and Versailles pull toward Monday being the “off” day and the Louvre pulls the opposite way.
• I book the Louvre entry slot as soon as I know my dates, not as a “we’ll sort it out when we get there” task. Popular windows fill up, especially mid-morning.
• If my trip only has a Monday and a Tuesday free for museums, I now know that’s actually workable — Louvre on Monday, Orsay or Versailles on Tuesday — rather than a scheduling dead end.
• I treat the closing day and the time-slot rule as two separate checks, not one. Getting the day right doesn’t help if I still show up without a booked window.

None of this needs to be complicated. It just needs to happen before the trip, not during it. The Louvre losing an entire day to closure, or a booked slot going unused because nobody checked the rules, are both avoidable with about ten minutes of planning.

If you want the fuller picture on visiting — what’s inside, how to move through the collection, how much time to give it — that’s covered on the Louvre museum guide and the Louvre highlights guide rather than here. This page exists to settle one question and one rule, and I’d rather leave it at that than pad it out with things you can read elsewhere.

For comparing the Louvre against the other major collection in Paris, the Louvre versus Musée d’Orsay guide walks through what each one actually offers. And if you’re weighing a private route through the museum against going on your own schedule, a private guide in Paris can also help route around the busiest hours, separate from the day-of-week question this page covers.

For a first pass through the collection with someone who knows the layout, a guided highlights tour of the Louvre covers the major rooms without you having to map the building yourself. If you’d rather go deeper into the collection’s history and standout works, a guided tour through the Louvre’s art treasures spends more time with fewer pieces.

FAQ: the Louvre’s closing day and booking rules

What day is the Louvre closed?

The Louvre is closed every Tuesday, throughout the year. It’s open the other six days of the week.

Is the Louvre closed on Mondays?

No. Monday is actually one of the Louvre’s open days. The Monday closure applies to other Paris museums, not the Louvre — which is exactly the mix-up this page is meant to prevent.

Do the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre close on the same day?

No. The Musée d’Orsay closes on Mondays, while the Louvre closes on Tuesdays. They’re different days, and each museum has its own guide with the details specific to that site.

Does Versailles close on the same day as the Louvre?

No. The Palace of Versailles is closed on Mondays, the same day as the Musée d’Orsay, while the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. If you’re visiting more than one of these on a short trip, keep the two different closing days straight when you build your schedule.

Do I need to book a time slot for the Louvre even on days it’s open?

Yes. A reserved entry time slot is required on every day the Louvre is open. Arriving without one can mean being turned away or facing an avoidable queue.

Does the Paris Museum Pass let me skip the Louvre time slot?

No. The Paris Museum Pass covers admission but does not remove the requirement to book a specific entry time slot in advance. Pass holders still need to reserve a window before visiting.

Can I just show up to the Louvre without checking the day first?

I wouldn’t. Given that the Louvre closes on a different day than the Musée d’Orsay and Versailles, and that a booked time slot is required regardless of which day you go, checking both details ahead of time avoids a wasted trip to the door.

What happens if I turn up on a Tuesday by mistake?

The museum simply isn’t open, so you won’t be able to enter. It’s worth double-checking the date against a calendar before you finalize which day of your trip is set aside for the Louvre.