Paris attraction in need of overhaul amid complaints of leaks, long waits, lack of signage – and too many people

As the crowds poured out of the Louvre, the look of dazed exhaustion on many faces confirmed what the museum’s director had warned last week: a trip to Paris’s biggest cultural attraction has become a “physical ordeal”.

Myriam, 65, a former secondary school science teacher had driven from Belgium with her husband to show their 12-year-old granddaughter the Mona Lisa. They left disappointed. “I think the Louvre is a victim of its own success,” she said. “We won’t come again.”