office upon arrival. The excellent audio guide is available in 16 languages. There's a great deal to see, so plan on spending at least half a day here. Wheelchairs are available free of charge: there's a ramp into the château, and toilets, the shop and the gardens are fully accessible. 

Where to eat

There are several picnic areas to choose from, both covered and uncovered. From mid-March to mid-November, there's a gastronomic French restaurant called L'Orangerie (menus €32 and €39.50, mains €20 to €26) and a self-service restaurant with a creperie serving sandwiches, pastries and other freshly prepared food. There's wine tasting in the château's historic wine cellar, the Cave des Dômes.

Why you should go 

Holding tens of thousands of works of art–from Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek antiquities to masterpieces by artists such as da Vinci (including his incomparable Mona Lisa), Michelangelo and Rembrandt–it’s no surprise that this is one of the world’s most visited museums.

The Louvre contains works of art and artisanship from all over Europe as well as priceless collections of antiquities. The Louvre’s raison d’être is essentially to present Western art (primarily French and Italian, but also Dutch and Spanish) from the Middle Ages to about 1848 – at which point