The very first time I visited the Louvre in Paris was also my very first time in Paris. On New Year’s Eve Day, it was raining, closing early due to the big holiday and very crowded. This was before cell phones, online reservation apps and buying tickets in advance. The line was two hours, but we didn’t care as we took baby steps to the front. We did not care when we checked our coats, bought our tickets, and found a paper floor plan (the Map). I had a small pencil with me and crossed off the rooms as we saw them. As the day’s minutes ticked by, we would enter a room and simply spin, cross it off the floor plan and move on. Of course we gawked at the Mona Lisa. Small as a cereal box and blocked by a hundred tourists taking photos of it- no selfies and no cell phones back then, just real cameras. Who knew! But wow, what an experience, a thrill, an honor.

The second time I visited the Louvre, I was with my mother. Her first time, my second. Tickets in hand, we walked to the visitors-with-tickets line, Blackberry in hand and entered the coat check. What a fabulous day to remember. The Mona Lisa had moved on to a larger room (I believe to be a mistake), was behind glass and now had a silky rope queuing viewers to the front. We took a photo with a small camera, same number of heads in front. This time, I had my blackberry in hand and was answering emails while waiting on the line. I realized quickly that I was tainting my experience and put it away when we got to the front of the line. I had never forgotten that, how I felt that I was cheating myself out of an experience of a lifetime. I swore I would never do that again, but I admittedly have walked through hundreds of museums answering texts and emails, while telling myself that this was the only way I could continue to travel like this.

I had been to the Loure several times after that, but the last time I had visited the Louvre was when I had a short-term rental in Paris, purchased a membership card to the museum and went there every single Monday morning to wander the rooms until they became choked with tourists. Then I would leave, knowing I was coming back again the following week, or whenever I wanted. What a pleasure, a treat, and an honor to be able to meander through the rooms looking slowly and carefully at pieces that a typical visit would not afford the time. I had the time to make choices, to linger, to revisit. I even had the time to watch the copyists paint, and to even arm myself with a sketch pad and pencils and try my hand at it too.

Every single time I visited the Louvre then, I have walked into the room with the Mona Lisa. Sometimes just giving her the same side-eye that she gave me, sometimes sitting on a bench watching the crowd of first timers and often just cutting through to exit the museum for the day. What I did discover in that large room that she fills like a giant is that there are so many more fabulous paintings and sculptures in that room that most people will never see, so focused are they on the treasure at the end of the line. But like the secret of Mona Lisa’s smile, I have seen the secrets in the room. I know I will be back again. So, here’s looking at you kid!