The Paris Opéra, also known as Palais Garnier is one of Paris' well known landmarks. Opening its doors on January 5th, 1875, it welcomed people with marbled columns and sculptures, beautiful murals painted on walls and ceilings, mirrors to make visitors feel part of the scene. The grand staircase would lead to the Theatre that holds 1979 seats.
I had the chance to visit the inside of the Opéra twice. The first time I bought a ticket to do an individual tour with one of my friends that was visiting. Since we were younger than 25 years old, our tickets were €12 compared to the regular fee of €14. There were multiple machines and a counter to buy tickets so the wait wasn't too long. You could also buy tickets online to avoid a wait.
The second time I went, I went with two other au pairs, and we bought tickets to see a ballet. Since we barely make money and tickets can be up to €300 or more at times, this required us to buy our tickets way in advance and get seating that was all the way up. Although the seats were super uncomfortable we got a good view and we were at the fame Opéra watching a show, can't complain too much.
Walking up to this majestic building puts you in awe. With perfect symmetry, gold designs, columns, sculptures, beautiful archway entrances, it's really hard to pay attention to what everything means. The two extraordinary golden sculptures on the top of the building are Charles Gumury's Harmony & Poetry. The smaller bronze busts along the front are famous composers including Beethoven and Mozart. The sculpture that you see on top center of the Opéra is Apollo, Poetry, & Music.
When we did the tour we entered through the west side. The east side once the private entrance for the emporer is now a museum-library and a restaurant. With our individual tour tickets, we got to see a lot of the building... Well the main
important parts. From a building model cut in half I once saw at Musée D'Orsay, I can safely say we saw 25% of that building. The most impressive part for me was the Grand Foyer. It is a 18 metres (59 ft) high, 154 metres (505 ft) hall with the ceiling exquisitely painted to represent various moments in music history. With the golden trimmings and golden chandeliers, it was hard not to feel like royalty.
We walked in through the front archway entrance when we went to the ballet. We were immediately greeted by the grand staircase. We had 30 minutes before the show started and we thought we had time to take pictures. There were so many things to take pictures of and our seats were on the 4th level, we did not capture as many pictures as we wanted. The bell that tells us we should find our seats rang 15 minutes before the show started, we scurried to find out seats with our mouths wide open taking in the building's beauty.
Having seats all the way at the top gave me a chance to really observe the great auditorium. When I came on the tour, there were only a few box seats open where everyone tried to squeeze in to get a good look a the traditional Italian horseshoe auditorium.
The ceiling that was colorfully painted looked like it didn't belong in there, personally I wasn't a fan of it. The seven ton bronze and crystal chandelier hung in the middle of the ceiling for all to admire. The same chandelier that inspire The Phantom of the Opera.
After the ballet we tried to squeeze in a few more pictures. I think we had an extra 30 minutes before they started kicking everyone out. Everyone was rushing to take their picture on the grand staircase including ourselves.
The Opera is an alluring building. It was built to impress and it does exactly that. If you are ever in Paris, make sure you have a chance to visit the interior. The ballet is optional but missing out on this beauty is not.
Comments