Paris at home: Louvre offers free virtual tours

Photo+courtesy+of+Pedro+Szekely+%28CC+BY-SA+2.0%29

Photo courtesy of Pedro Szekely (CC BY-SA 2.0)

You can now explore a piece of Paris in your living room.

The Louvre Museum is offering its visitors free virtual tours of certain on-site galleries and rooms.

Visitors can choose to experience the galleries “Power Plays,” “The Advent of the Artist,” “Founding Myths: From Hercules to Darth Vader,” and more. Some, though, are only in French.

“These tours are good for people who don’t get the chance to go and see these pieces in person,” said Kathy Dinh, 26. “I think it will definitely be better for all sorts of people in different economic situations.”

Son Nguyen, 30, said that experiencing art virtually has unique advantages.

“If you can go to the museum, it’s like 100% experience; if you do VR or the experience on your phone, it would be 70-80% of the experience,” Nguyen said. “If you can’t afford a ticket to France, you will definitely benefit from this.”

People can view pieces in different angles and see small details, which helps make the online experience close to a real-life experience.

“I liked how the images were high quality — you can read the words on the wall,” said Domenic Dipeppe, 26. “I can tell they took a lot of pictures at one spot, so you can rotate it with no loss of quality.”

Still, virtual tours only give people a preview of what it’s like to be in person.

“I like to see art in person,” said Katty Nguyen, 25. “The experience is not exactly the same as online. The environment is different.”

Nguyen said she appreciates the option for the virtual experience but believes that being at the museum in person is more immersive.

Visitors can launch these tours anytime at https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne.