Palais Garnier
A mellow place to purchase Palais Garnier Tickets is this site.When Napoleon asked Charles Garnier "But which is thus this architectural style?", the architect of the whole nou calf and sumptuous opera of Paris answered him: "It is of Napoleon III lord".
This answer illustrates perfectly how much the Garnier Palate falls under the restoration of Paris haussmanien during second half of the XIXème century since its construction begins in 1862 and will last 13 years.
This project D onne with the capital a neo-classic lyric temple of a richness inouïe, with the measurement of the extravagant megalomania of Napoleon III Irony of the history, the Emperor whose letter N interlaced of the E of his Eugenie wife strikes the pediment of the opera, will never attend its inauguration.
The Avenue of the Opera is one of the rare avenues of Paris not to comprise any tree, on the orders of the emperor who was afraid of an attack which can reach it starting from the hidden windows.
All the western part external of the building is unfinished.
The decorative blocks which surround the windows are still rough of sculpture.
Much more than one simple opera, this theatre was in its time a place of prestige, almost a élitiste club, where middle-class and aristocracy were found with the liking of events society men, representations, balls, ballets.
All the part of reception, of the large staircase to the interior balconies, is a social theatre where each one took pleasure to see and to be seen.
Its decoration is so luxurious that it makes of it the most prestigious opera of the world.
At the interior, tens of invaluable marbles, allegorical paintings, gilded mosaics, equip the grounds, the walls and the ceilings of the large monumental staircase and the hearth which opens on the place of the Opera.
In the room, a painted ceiling signed by Chagall in 1964 symbolizes the principal monuments of Paris.
It is possible to visit the room and the parts of reception during the day, but it is highly advised to hold its ticket in advance, to attend the representations.
Since the construction of the Opera Bastille, the ballet garnier deals for the dance and the corps de ballet.
From time to time, one gives some operas to it to old.
In front of the monument four groups of monumental sculpture are.
On the extreme line, the group of the dance signed Carpeaux made scandal in its time because it represents an orgy of naked women.
The original group is preserved at the Museum of Orday.
The sculpture installed in its place is a copy of the sculptor Paul Belmondo