Opéra Garnier

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This is the famous Opéra Garnier, the older of the two main opera houses in Paris. It was designed by Charles Garnier, whence the name; the other, newer opera house was built on the site of the Bastille, and is thus called the Opéra Bastille.

This opera house today hosts mainly classical ballet; the Opéra Bastille hosts grand opera.

The Phantom of the Opera of fiction lived beneath this opera house. At night, when the windows of the opera house are lit, it’s not that difficult to imagine Claude Rains or Vincent Price really living underneath the building and playing Bach on a pipe organ all night long.

This semi-telephoto shot was taken from the the median of the avenue de l’Opéra in my usual devil-may-care way. The almost-glowing look of the Opera is a consequence of the way the sun was shining (I took this photo at high noon on the longest day of the year), plus the fact that the Opera had just undergone a year-long restoration to its original glory (lots of white marble and pink granite and what-not).

All the trim and decoration that looks like real gold on the building is … real gold.

You are looking roughly north in this photograph; Montmartre is behind the opera house and about 2 km away, and the Louvre Museum is behind you and about 800 m distant. The gift shop shown elsewhere in my gallery is behind you, on the left, and a bit over a hundred metres away.

I also have a nighttime photo of the Opera, if you are interested.

Click directly on the photo to see a larger version (twice this size). Photographed on June 18, 2000.
(N 48°52'16" E 002°19'56")