The 9am Louvre slot beats the “skip-the-line” tour
Guided “skip-the-line” tours run $70–110 a head. A timed 9am ticket is about $24 — and gets you in front of the crowd, not behind a flag.
The Louvre isn’t hard to skip the line at — you just have to book the first entry of the day on the official site (louvre.fr, not a reseller). The 9am slot puts you in the Denon wing before the tour groups arrive around 10:30. For roughly 90 minutes you get the Mona Lisa room, the Winged Victory staircase, and the Grande Galerie in something close to calm.
Do it like this
Book the 9am slot two to three weeks out. Enter through the Porte des Lions or the Carrousel mall entrance, not the pyramid — both are dramatically shorter. Go straight to the Mona Lisa first while it’s quiet, then work backward. You’ll be done before the museum feels full.
Worth it — the ticket, not the tour. Save the $70. The only thing a guide gives you that the 9am slot doesn’t is narration, and an audio guide or a good book does that for $5.
The one exception
If it’s your only Paris museum and you want the history, a small-group tour can be worth it — but book a reputable art-historian guide, not a headset-and-flag operation. Otherwise, the 9am ticket and the Orangerie afterward is the smarter day.