Louvre of ground- and lower-ground-level interior spaces topped by a golden, undulating roof (fashioned from almost 9,000 steel tubes that form an interior web) that seems to float within the neo-Classical Visconti Courtyard in the middle of the Louvre's south wing. The galleries, which the museum had initially hoped to open by 2009, represent the first major architectural intervention at the Louvre since the addition of I.M. Pei's glass pyramid in 1989. On 5 February 2015, about one hundred archaeologists, protesting against commercial private involvement to protect France's heritage, blocked Louvre's ticket desks to facilitate free access to the museum. At
Paris in the 16th century where the courts, treasury, and other government officials worked. When the King returned to Paris, the Louvre became the main royal residence. The poor were concentrated in the narrow, winding streets on the Île-de-la-Cité and near Les Halles. When the King returned to Paris, the nobles of the Court began to build large residences in the Marais district, in the east of the city. Paris was the largest city in Europe, rivaled only by London, and by far the largest city in France; the second-largest French city, Rouen, had only fifty thousand inhabitants. It was described by visitors at the