I went with the folks visiting from Portland on a tour of the Opera Garnier. It is truly an opulent and amazing architectural wonder. It was built during the period 1861 to 1875. Napoleon III had a contest to choose the architect whose design he liked best for the opera house he wanted built for the Paris Opera. The winner was Charles Garnier....but in truth, all of Paris and the world are the winners. Thanks to our tour guide, I learned so many details about his design and about his innovative methods. It was really fascinating. Unfortunately, Napoleon III was deposed in 1870 as a result of the Franco-Prussian war and never got to see the completion of his opera house.
And, of course, it is the famous setting for Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera.
Again, not all the pictures I took turned out well. So some of these pictures are from Google Images and some from my camera.
The ceiling of the auditorium has a painting by Marc Chagall. It was installed over the top of the original painted ceiling in the 1960's. The original is still there, undamaged. They built a structure over it, to protect it and applied the Chagall to the structure. The Chagall is so beautiful. I tried to get as many pictures of it as I could. The massive chandelier weighs something like nine tons.
The first picture below is from Google, the others are mine.
Another beautiful ceiling in another room.......
Here are the folks with whom I went on the tour......and me.....on the veranda of the opera.
I can't get over the beauty of the architecture!
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