Orientation
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Place Carrousel

At first overwhelming, the supremely rational layout of the museum can actually be quite fun to master. Core to the plan are the three wings: Denon (south), Richelieu (north) and Sully (east, around the giant quadrangle of the Cour Carré). Within these wings, each floor falls into one of seven sections: Antiquities (Oriental, Egyptian and Classical); Sculpture; Painting; the Medieval Louvre; and Objets d'art. Some sections spread across two wings, or two floors of the same wing. The system's only drawback is that it doesn't spotlight the palace's magnificently decorated suites and rooms that give such a strong identity to certain sections.

From the Hall Napoleon, under the Pyramide, stairs lead south into the Denon wing, by far the most popular area of the museum, with the must-see Italian masterpieces of the Grande Galerie, the famous nineteenth-century French large-format paintings and the Mona Lisa, all on the first floor. Denon also houses Classical and Italian sculpture on its two lower floors.

Serious lovers of French art will head north to the Richelieu wing for the French sculpture collection; the grand chronology of French painting, which begins on the second floor; and the superb objets d'art collection on the first floor, which includes everything French that's not painting or sculpture – furniture, tapestries, crystal, jewels. Richelieu also houses Middle-Eastern antiquities and Islamic art (ground and lower ground floors), and northern European painting (second floor).

Rather fewer visitors begin with the Sully wing, although it's here that the story begins, with the foundations of Philippe-Auguste's twelfth-century fortress on the lower ground floor. The floors above mostly continue chronologies begun in other wings, with antiquities from Greece and the Levant (ground floor), and the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century periods from the Objets d'art (first floor) and French painting (second floor) sections. The complete Pharaonic Egypt collection is here too.

The Porte des Lions, on the Quai des Tuileries, provides one of the quickest ways into the museum, via the Pavillon des Sessions. Until the new museum on Quai Branly is finished, probably in 2006, the pavillon's half dozen rooms will house statuary from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. From the pavillon, a staircase leads up into Spanish and Italian paintings, just a few steps from the Grande Galerie.

It's well worth picking up a floor plan from the information booth in the Hall Napoleon, or at one of the alternative gates. This makes sense of it all by colour-coding the various sections, as well as highlighting a few of the best-known masterpieces.