Palais Garnier Visit

The Palais Garnier was designed by the young architect Charles Garnier after a competition launched under Napoleon III, and it opened in 1875. It is the older of the Opéra national de Paris's two houses, still used for ballet and some opera, and outside performance times the building is open for visits. Its lavish mix of marble, gilding, mosaics and painted ceilings makes it one of the most remarkable interiors of the Second Empire.

The visit starts at the rotunda entrance and leads to the Grand Staircase, a double flight of white marble with onyx balustrades, designed as a stage on which the audience could see and be seen. Upstairs, the Grand Foyer is a long gallery of mirrors, chandeliers and ceiling paintings that recalls the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. When rehearsals allow, visitors can look into the red and gold auditorium from a box and see the ceiling painted by Marc Chagall in 1964 around the great chandelier. The library-museum, with its models of stage sets, costumes and documents from the opera's history, is included, and temporary exhibitions are often held there. The building also inspired the setting of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, and the guides like to point out the details that fed the legend.

The visit suits architecture lovers, families with older children and anyone curious about the theatre world. Two formats are available: a self-guided visit, which takes about an hour and a half, and guided tours led by lecturers, which add background and stories. Booking online is mandatory and no visit tickets are sold on site. You may enter up to 30 minutes after your booked time. Access to the auditorium depends on rehearsals and technical work, so it is not always possible to see it.

Weekday mornings are usually the quietest. The building is closed to visitors on some days with matinee performances or special events, so check the calendar before booking. If you want to see the house in action, buying a ticket for a ballet performance is another way in, though the best seats sell out well ahead.

The Palais Garnier stands on Place de l'Opéra, directly above Opéra metro station on lines 3, 7 and 8, with RER A at Auber nearby. Galeries Lafayette and Printemps are just behind it on Boulevard Haussmann, and the Café de la Paix faces it across the square.