Paris Opera tour
Comprehensive guide to Paris Opera tours
The Opera de Paris Garnier or the Opera Garnier is located at the Place de l'Opera, in the 9th arrondissement, towards the north of the 2nd arrondissement. The surrounding area around the Paris Opera is known as the Opera area and can be deeply explored through a guided Opera tour. The Paris Opera area is flush with cafés, terraces, and chic luxury boutiques lining the "Grands Boulevards".
If you want to see the grandeur and the true element of the Second Empire of Napoleon III head to the Opera Tour in Paris. This district is also famous for the sheer diversity and city planning expertise of Baron Haussmann. You’ll thank him for the wide streets that characterize the olden era, a time when France was the epitome of power, riches, and luxury, or for the amazing beauty still emanating from every pore of the city that makes you pause anywhere you go in Paris.
A very lively, exciting, and fun-filled area, the Paris Opera tour is a cultural and shopping hub. Deviod of much night life, the Opera area houses the opulent and gilded Opera Garnier, the Boulevard Haussmann, and the grand shopping stores such as les Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, or La Samaritane. There is the Boulevard des Capucines that connects the Opera area to the Place de la Madeleine, whose claim to fame is the Madeleine church. This Madeline square has a reputation of being the center of delicious eateries, beautiful buildings, famous shops specializing in chocolate, champagne, caviar and truffles, and delicatessens’ and bars and brasseries.
Of course, the main attraction of the Opera tour is the Opera building itself. Made of gray stone and gilded and sculpted domes, the Opera Garnier is an imposing, striking, and glorious structure built during the reign of Napoléon III and renovated in 1964 with the main dome ceiling being painted by Chagal. Today, the Opera Garnier is home to ballet as other forms of Opera now get staged at the Opera Bastille. As you walk into the Opera house you’ll be struck with the sheer beauty of the marble interior and one particular feature that is bound to catch your eye will be the chandelier in the auditorium, which weighs an astonishing eight tonnes!
After having toured the Opera house you can start your tour of some outrageously expensive and unbelievably smart “grands magasins” in Paris from La Madeleine. Visit the Fauchon store or make your way towards Boulevard Haussmann and walk on to the famous department store Au Printemps or Galeries Lafayette.
Oh and after all that shopping, don’t forget to say thank you to the good lord for his blessings at the charming Ste Marie-Madeleine church.