Opera Garnier – 5 Incredible Things to See Inside the Palais Garnier!

The Opera Garnier is one of the best known symbols of Paris along with the Eiffel Tower and others. But did you know the interior is even more stunning than the outside?

Let’s explore together the 5 incredible things to see inside the Palais Garnier. After that, I’m sure you’ll book your visit in a heartbeat!

 

 

The Opera Garnier, also named Paris Opera, or Palais Garnier, is a Second-Empire Opera built in 1875 by Charles Garnier, under Emperor Napoleon III.

The building is massive: 56 meters high (184 feet), 155 meters long (508 feet) and 101 meters wide (332 feet). Most people know the Opera Garnier building; its external appearance. However, the inside of the Palais Garnier is so incredible it must be included in your Paris itinerary.

 

 

In this comprehensive guide about the Opera Garnier, you’ll find everything you need to know for your visit, from deciding if you want to visit, to helping you make the most out of your visit.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Where is the Opera Garnier?
• Interesting Facts about the Palais Garnier
• 5 Incredible Things to See in the Opera Garnier in Paris
• Opera Garnier Tickets + how to save time
• Opera Garnier Opening Hours
• Special Tips For Your Visit to the Opera de Paris
• What to Visit After the Palais Garnier?

Where is the Opera Garnier?

The Opera Garnier is located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, next to Paris Saint-Lazare.

It’s a 10 minutes walk from the famous Place Vendôme and Notre-Dame de Lorette, and a 15 minutes walk from the Louvre (discover the must-sees in the Louvre museum) and the Palais Royal.

To visit the Opera, you don’t enter through the main entrance. The entrance is on the left side. The exact address for the entrance is:

8 rue Scribe, 75009 Paris

How to get to the Opera Garnier?

To get to the opera by train, you can either take:

• the RER A to “Auber”
• the metro lines 3, 7 and 8 to “Opéra”

Interesting Facts about the Palais Garnier

I can’t talk about a building such as the Opera without mentioning its history. The Palais Garnier’s history is pretty rich, but I know you didn’t come here to learn in lengths about the history of the place. I’ll keep it short, with these bite-sized history facts:

• the Opera Garnier was designed by Charles Garnier, who won the international design competition, attended by 171 architects
• the Palais Garnier was commissioned by the emperor Napoleon III
• the construction began in 1861, and took 15 years, finishing in 1875
• it’s one of the largest theaters in the world, with a seating capacity of 1,979 people
• the Opera is the inspiration for the novel The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
• there is a huge underground water tank below the Opera

5 Incredible Things to See in the Opera Garnier in Paris

The Opera Garnier is a stunning building. From the outside, it looks wonderful, with all the decorations on the facade, the paintings, and golden statues.

You can find below the details of everything you can find on the main facade of the Palais Garnier

Photo by Peter Rivera under CC BY 2.0

However many don’t know that you can go inside the Opera! And let me tell you that the inside is absolutely sumptuous. Not sure you should enter the Opera? Here are 5 incredible things you can see inside, to help you make up your mind:

1. Le Grand Escalier
2. The Auditorium
3. Le Grand Foyer
4. The Library
5. The Museum

Let’s discover in more details each of the 5 things.

1- Le Grand Escalier – The Grand Staircase

The first thing you’ll see when entering the Opera Garnier is the monumental staircase.

Named Le Grand Escalier (the Grand Staircase), it’s truly imposing. There is one main row of stairs, that leads to the representation room (the Auditorium).

Then, the staircase is divided into 2 row of stairs, that lead up to the balcony, and to the main hall (le Grand Foyer).

The Grand Staircase is built out of white marble.

In addition to the staircase itself, you’ll notice the two delicate statues acting as torchères, holding the lights.

The ceiling of the Grand Escalier is also pretty impressive by itself, 30 meters (98 feet) above the ground.

The ceiling is made of 4 beautiful paintings, by Isidore Pils:

• The Triumph of Apollo
• Minerva Fighting Brutality Watched by the Gods of Olympus
• The Enchantment of Music Deploying its Charms
• The City of Paris Receiving the Plan of the New Opera

The Auditorium

You’ll discover the second interesting thing to see in the Opera Garnier right after the first flight of stairs of the Grand Staircase. By pushing the small wooden doors, you’ll enter the Auditorium, the main stage of the Opera Garnier.

The Auditorium is one of the largest in the world: it can host 1,979 people, and more than 450 artists on the stage.

More than the sheer size of the Auditorium, what really struck me was how luxurious it is. Everything is covered in red velvet, marble, and gold leaves.

The Opera Garnier curtain on the stage was painted in trompe-l’oeil style to represent a draped curtain.

Did you know? The Auditorium was made for people to see the stage, but also to see the other people. It was a popular thing to do back in the days: you came to look at people.

Just as the Grand Escalier, the Auditorium is impressive when you look up, starting with the chandelier. The chandelier, made of bronze and crystal, weighs no less than 7 tons, and is 8 meters high by 5 meters wide (26×16 feet).

There is a famous story around the Chandelier: one of the counterweight snapped and fell through the roof, killing one of the spectators. The story inspired the Fantôme de l’Opéra novel.

Above the chandelier, you can see the beautiful ceiling, painted by Marc Chagall in 1964, as asked by André Malraux, Minister of Cultural Affairs.

It’s deemed by many as an insult to the overall style of the Opera Garnier, as it clashes with the neo-classical art that you can find in the Palais Garnier.

Le Grand Foyer

The third interesting thing to see inside the Opera Garnier is probably my favorite. The Grand Foyer is a massive hall, similar to the ones you can find in Renaissance-style buildings (Château de Versailles or Musée du Louvre for example).

The first thing that struck me is that, as everything in the Palais Garnier, the Grand Foyer is massive. 18 meters high (60 feet), 154 meters long (505 feet) and 13 meters wide (42 feet). Yup, that’s massive!

The hall is made even more impressive with the huge mirrors on one side, and the huge windows on the other. It’s absolutely grand with the daylight coming in through the high windows and lighting up the interior.

Do you know what else is spectacular in the Grand Foyer? Well, you’ve probably guessed it by now: the ceiling!

Just like everything else in the Opera Garnier, the Grand Foyer ceiling is a real treat to look at.

On the sides of the ceiling, there are 20 statues, representing the qualities that every lyrical artist needs to possess.

The ceiling is made of a lot of different paintings, by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry. They picture the main events of the history of music, comedy and tragedy.

Did you know? The lyre is the main element of decoration in the Grand Foyer. How many lyres can you count?

At each end, the hall leads to 2 salons: the Salon de la Lune (Moon Salon) at the western end, and the Salon du Soleil (Sun Salon) at the eastern end.

The Paris Opera Library

The 4th incredible thing to see inside the Opera Garnier might not be what you typically expect to find when you think about the Paris Opera. The Opera Garnier has a superb library, the kind that you only see in movies.

The library is located in another part of the Palais Garnier, named the Rotonde de l’Empereur. This was the private entrance for Emperor Napoleon III. When Napoleon died in 1873, the space was converted into a conservation space, to protect all of the documents held in the library.

The 3 images above are the three rooms of the Paris Opera Library. The first one is the Lecture Room, the second one is an additional room of the library, and the third is the main hall of the library.

The first and second room are now closed to the public. If you visit the Palais Garnier today, you will only see the third room, the main hall of the library (which is still pretty impressive!). The two other rooms are only accessible by researchers.

Did you know? There are more than 600,000 documents in the Paris Opera Library. Books, newspapers, letters, photographs, …

The Paris Opera Museum

The 5th and last incredible thing to see in the Opera Garnier is also something you wouldn’t expect to find inside the Opera: the Paris Opera Museum.

If you have the slightest interest in history or arts, you’ll absolutely enjoy the museum. The museum is rather small, with only 5 rooms, but it holds more than 3 centuries of the Opera Garnier.

Among the 8,500 objects in the museum collection, you’ll be able to see costumes used in representations, with the corresponding jewelry.

You’ll also see beautiful paintings, such as a painting of one of the painter, painting while wearing a full suit (so classy!).

One other piece that I really liked in the museum was the first version of the Auditorium ceiling, at a smaller scale.

That concludes the list of the 5 incredible things you can find inside the Opera Garnier! Keep reading for more information about the Paris Opera  to help you plan your visit, such as opening times, booking information, prices, tips, and what to visit next.

Opera Garnier Tickets + how to save time

To visit the Opera Garnier, you’ll have to purchase a ticket.

Unlike many other monuments in Paris, there is no free admission for youth under 26 years old.

The tickets for visiting the Opera will cost:

• free for children under 12 years old
• 7€ for 12-25 years old
• 11€ for adults

You can buy your tickets directly at the Opera. After going through security, you can go to the ticket booth and buy your tickets there.

My tip for your visit to the Opera Garnier is to book your tickets online prior to the visit: this way, you’ll avoid having to queue up to buy your ticket, and save a ton of time.

To book your ticket online, click here: Book Opera Garnier ticket

Opera Garnier Opening Hours

The Opera is open every day, from 10am to 5pm. Last entrance is at 4:30pm

Be careful! The Opera has 29 special days in the year:

• it’s closed 10 days in the year
• it closes at 1pm 15 days a year
• and is closed until 2pm 4 days a year

You can find out the exact days here: Opera Garnier closing days

Special Tips For Your Visit to the Opera de Paris

Are you planning to visit the Opera Garnier soon? Well, then you can find below some tips to best prepare your visit, and to make sure you have a wonderful time there 🙂

• book your tickets online: save yourself the hassle of having to queue inside the Opera to buy your tickets. Simply book your tickets online, and you’ll be good to go
• research closing days: before booking your tickets, make sure that the Opera will be open on the day you’re planning to visit. Check above the Opera Garnier opening hours and the closing days to make sure you won’t go all the way in front of the Opera only to learn that it’s in fact closed
• look up! The ceilings of the Opera are beautifully decorated, and the chandelier are breathtaking; so remember to look up during your visit

What to Visit After the Palais Garnier?

You need in average 1 hour in the Opera, to fully visit every part. After you’ll visit, you’ll probably have a lot of time to visit more attractions and try fun things in Paris.

In the same area, there are plenty of incredible things to see.

For rainy days, or if you want to go inside, you can go to:

• Galeries Lafayette – 5 minutes walk
• Eglise de la Madeleine – 10 minutes walk
• Eglise Notre-Dame de Lorette – 12 minutes walk

For sunny days, or if you’d rather be outside, you can explore:

• Place Vendôme – 10 minutes walk
• Palais-Royal – 13 minutes walk
• Jardin des Tuileries – 15 minutes walk

So there you have them, the 5 incredible things to see inside the Opera Garnier in Paris! I hope you found this guide helpful, and that you’ll enjoy your visit to the Opera Garnier.

Do you have any questions about your visit to the Opera Garnier? Or to any other place? Ask me in the comments, I always make sure to reply!

If you take any photos during your visit and post them to Instagram, tag them with #kevmrctravel so that I can see them!