In Paris, 7 Euro may not be enough to get you a seat at the opera, but it will get you into its most famous opera house, the Opera Garnier. And, if you’re under 19 or traveling with those that fit the description, it’s only 4 Euro. Unguided tours run daily and walking through this opera house (the setting for the Phantom of the Opera) is like walking through a museum on steroids. And while you won’t be able to sneak into the red-velvet interior of the performance hall (especially to see the Marc Chagall ceiling….tant pis), there is as much a show offstage here as there is on.

Charles Garnier, who built this house through his stewardship of the Opera National de Paris and lends his name to the house, was a firm believer that opera is a temple. The Opera Garnier is therefore a step-by-step path from the ordinary to the divine, and even when you walk by it on the Place de l’Opera, you can’t help but stare for a bit. It hits you in the foyer as you wait to get in, but it really hits you at the Grand Staircase (the first thing you see once you pass through the admissions gate). Check out the other–now unused–entrances as well, including the Visitor’s Entrance and the Public Entrance (used during the time when those who had to wait for their tickets and didn’t arrive in their own carriage needed to not be seen by those who didn’t and did–quelle horreur). Other rooms to check out include the Grand Foyer, the Avant Foyer (or the Foyer of Mosaics), the Foyer de la Danse, the Galerie and Rotonde de Glacier, and, my personal favorites, the Salons of the Sun and the Moon. And for you sculpture enthusiasts, there’s enough here to keep you full until the next opera season.

Now, for another post I have tips and tricks to see the Operas and Ballets of Paris on the cheap, but if the most you want to commit to the opera is an hour touring the house, let me suggest an alternative. Get out of the (opera) house, and get your iPod fully loaded. Some of the greatest operas are set in Paris, and the best way to “see” some of these operas is on location. Here’s a mix of some music to download and the locations where it should be uploaded:

  • First and Second Acts of La Boheme (Puccini) in the Latin Quarter (Debussy said of this opera that no one had detailed Paris at that time better than had Puccini.)
  • “Bevo all’tu fresco” through the end of the Second Act of La Rondine (Puccini) in Saint Germain
  • First act through “Parigi e la citta di desideri” from La Rondine (Puccini) and the First Act of La Traviata (Verdi) in the Place de l’Opera/9th Arrondisement
  • Overture and “Chacun le Sait” from La Fille du Regiment (Donizetti) in L’etoile/L’Arc du Triomphe/Les Invalides
  • “I’m Off to Chez Maxim’s,” “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and the Third Act of Die Lustige Witwe/The Merry Widow (Lehar) near Place de la Concorde (right near the real Maxim’s)
  • “Vin ou Bierre” through “Nous nous retrouverons, mes Amis” from Faust (Gounod) near Notre Dame and the Hotel Cluny
  • Selections from La Vie Parisienne (Offenbach) in Montmartre
  • Act III Scene One from Manon (Massenet) in the Tuileries
  • “La Mamma Morta” and Act IV of Andrea Chenier (Giordano) in the Bastille and Place de la Concorde


Opera Garnier
Place de l’Opera, 75009
Metro: Opera
01-40-01-23-34 or 01-47-42-53-71
Unguided tours daily 10 am to 5:00 pm
www.opera-de-paris.fr