Visiting the Louvre is a special experience, but you need to know where to start. The first thing to recognize is that it's huge and you can't hope to see everything in a day - so don't try. You get a handy map of the museum with your entrance ticket and it highlights the main attractions, such as the Mona Lisa.
You can't visit the Louvre and not see the Mona Lisa, but my tip would be to see it first - though you may have to run to avoid the crowds ! When you've done that, use the plan to look for the galleries that sound most interesting to you, and spend the morning visiting them, when you have plenty of energy. Then have some lunch at one of the reasonably priced cafés, and spend the afternoon relaxing and finding surprises without looking at your map. The beauty of any museum or gallery is personal discovery.
On a practical note, there are toilets located on all floors, and several shops selling really good books, guides, postcards, and souvenirs. Photography, surprisingly, is permitted.
You can borrow an audio guide for a fee, which is very useful and worth the money. You have to leave a credit card or passport or similar as security. There are several stalls offering audio guides, so you need to remember which one you got it from, as you must return it to the same one to get your credit card or passport back. The Louvre is organized into "wings" with names (Denon, etc.) and the audio guides are at the entrance to each wing (under the glass pyramid).
Finally, the easiest way to enter the Louvre is via the Metro entrance, rather than for the street, as the queues are shorter.
Have a wonderful visit !
ciao
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