🇫🇷 Paris

Opéra Garnier (Palais Garnier)

historymust-seephoto spot

Address: Place de l'Opéra, 75009 Paris, France (visitor entrance at Rue Scribe / Rue Auber)
Hours: Self-guided visits daily, roughly 10:00–18:00 in summer (last entry ~17:00); closed to visitors on matinee-performance days, so check the calendar
Price: ~€15 adult (EEA) / ~€25 non-EEA; under 13 free; online booking required
Website: https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/visits/palais-garnier
Map: Open in Google Maps ↗

The auditorium's original ceiling was replaced in 1964 by a vivid Marc Chagall fresco. The lake-like reservoir built beneath the foundations helped inspire Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera.

Charles Garnier's 1875 opera house is the grandest building of Napoleon III's Paris, and you can tour it by day without seeing a performance. The highlights are the marble Grand Staircase, the Grand Foyer (a hall of mirrors and chandeliers that rivals Versailles), and the red-and-gold auditorium under Marc Chagall's 1964 ceiling. About a 12-minute walk from the apartment.

Two things to plan around:

It can close to visitors on matinee days, and the auditorium is sometimes shut for rehearsals even when the building is open, so check the official visit calendar before going.
Book online ahead (no tickets sold on site), and note that as US visitors the adult ticket is the higher non-EEA rate (~€25).

A self-guided audio tour is available, and the whole visit runs about an hour to ninety minutes.