I heard years ago that there was a shopping mall underneath the Louvre, and I thought it was under the glass pyramid. I was wrong. The pyramid was the entrance to the museum, and the underground area was used to direct traffic to the different wings of the Louvre.

After many hours touring the museum, I had long forgotten about the mall. However, while walking around to find the metro back to the hotel, we ran into the shopping extravaganza. I’m glad I did. I wasn’t interested in shopping but found an inverted glass pyramid instead.

The design is genius playing off the Louvre’s main entry. As I discovered, the mall located between the Louvre Museum and Place du Carrousel is aptly named Carrousel du Louvre.

In some ways, the Carrousel du Louvre is the Inverse of the Louvre (museum.) There’s the obvious architectural playfulness of using the La Pyramide Inversée (inverted pyramid) as a skylight and centerpiece of the mall. Also, the fleeting baubles in stores are the opposite of the museum’s historic, timeless, and priceless treasures. Common to both, on the other hand, is eye-catching architecture.

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