Opera Garnier

During the Patrimony Days, which where this past weekend as I mentioned on my previous post, after visiting the Hotel de Ville, I went to the Opera Garnier. The Opera is open to the public, but this day it was open free of charge, so I decided it might be a good day to give it a visit.
The Building of the Opera, took 15 years to be built, and it was finished in 1871. Its construction was ordered by Napoleon III.

     

The auditorium was closed due to servicing, but here is a scale model of how the inside looks.

As you go in there is a waiting area in between where you purchase the tickets and the actual entrance to the staircase.

      

One of the main features of the Opera Garnier, is its Grand Staircase made of marble, that leads to the various levels of the auditorium.

     

     

The foyers in the different levels of the Opera Garnier are also widely known, for its beauty, and wonderful decoration. This foyers are mainly for the audience to walk along during the intervals. To go inside one of this foyers, was amazing, everywhere you look there are so many details to look at, and so fully decorated, you cannot stop looking.

      

View of the ceiling

Exit towards the grand Stairways

At the exit of the Opera, just before you hit the gift shop, there are some impressive statues of important musicians.

Now a days, most of the Operas are not showed here. This remained as the House for ballet spectacles in Paris.

On Saturday I also went to Galleries Lafayette one of the most famous department stores here in Paris. They had a special tour about the history of the building, the different stages it went through to be the huge store it is today. They are mentioned a bit of the history of the famous dome that characterizes this store. I didn't take pictures, since my camera was about death. I only got to take pictures of a show piece they had at the terrace made only by Rubik Cubes, which I thought was pretty cool.

So that was all for Saturday, by the time I hit home, I was exhausted!!!

Hotel de Ville

 This past weekend France had what they called the "Patrimony Days" which always a weekend during September in which they promote for people to get to know their national building and museums. During this days, there will either be a discounted entry fee, or no fee at all, as well as some exceptional openings of some buildings that are closed to the public the rest of the year.
Since I had to take this opportunity to visit places that are usually not opened to the public, on Saturday I decided to go to the Hotel de Ville, which is Paris' town hall. This building has a plaza in front of it, that used to be the main location for executions, such as hangings, burning of people, among others.
This building was burned at some point, and then rebuild, and fully redecorated, by painters and sculptors. The decorations evoke the magnificence of the cities famous festivities.

Entry staircase

Ceiling detail of one of the rooms

Detail of wall decorations (paintings)

Entry to the Salon de Arcades with decorations  dedicated to the science, arts, and literature

Sample of wall and part of ceiling decoration

Salon Georges Bertrand with decorations reflecting agriculture

Decoration detail

One of the statues decorating the room

Now here is the "salon de fetes" which is the main ball room with paintings all along the wall/ceiling depicting the main regional areas of France.

Entrance to the room

View of the ceiling

The "sale de fetes"

      

     

They also where showing the Library of the Hotel de Ville

     

After the Library you would be led into the Office of the former Mayor of Paris

     

They were also showing the Paris' Council room

     

After that, I went to the Mayor of Paris' office

Mayor's Anteroom, or waiting room

Mayor's Office

Mayor's Office

Mayor's Office

And that's it for the Hotel de Ville. Hope you can see a bit and get an idea of how pretty this place is.