For anyone who has visit the Louvre in Paris, you know how easy it is to become completely and utterly lost. While there are tricks to maintaining your bearings within the Louvre (look out the window to see the Seine or the courtyard), massive crowds, overwhelming exhibits and interior rooms don’t help the matter. Despite the fact I had rented an old audio guide with maps, within about fifteen minutes of entering the Louvre I got lost. I couldn’t help but think, “if I just had a GPS I’d know where I was and how to find the works I want to see.” (FYI: mobile phones and GPS don’t function inside the Louvre.)
Now, however, a better GPS-style guide exists. No, it’s not by Google Maps, it’s by Nintendo. Using their 3DS handheld gaming devices, Nintendo teamed up with the Louvre to build a guide that not only helps navigate the 35,000 artworks, but provides commentary on over 700 of them. It even includes high-definition photos of the pieces from angles you can’t reach (unless you are like the dumb tourist I saw trying to climb the Winged Victory statue).
Within the next few months, the Louvre will have nearly 5000 of these devices in play. So next time you want to go all Mario Brothers on your family for getting lost in the Louvre, you can rent the device and focus on the artwork instead.
Below, are the reasons why the Louvre is daunting. Big looking in, big looking out, large galleries, and artworks like Antonio Canova’s Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.
