Palais Garnier and lunch in the park

Today I ventured out alone, I caught the metro and rose from the underground to see this

This is the Palais Garnier ( the Paris opera house) it was completed in 1875 and wow is it amazing.I had a great tour guide and her passion for the building was contagious.

This is the grand staircase, the picture doesn't do it justice, the stairs are made of marble from all over the world, and as such has so many beautiful colours. The guide was telling us that this area is larger and more important than the actual theatre because when this building was built it was much more important to be seen than to watch the performance. The rich would have season tickets, and as such would come on on the theatre 3 times a week , to be "seen". Just think girls three new dresses every week.

The stall were important, as the women were not allowed to sit in the main area, near a strange man. And also when the building was built the candelabra actually had candles so if you sat under it you 

got wax dripped on you . . . . Not great for those new dresses

The rich red was everywhere, and apparently was the choice of the architect, because he believed the red was more flattering to women. 

And this was where you went to have your canapés and champagne between performances.

A little preview to Versailles . . . I would not mind sipping champagne here . . . 

It is a tuely stunning building and I learned so much .....about how the theatre and its history really a must see.

This is napoleons column in the Place  Vendome, I actually came here to see the Chanel shop , which was only a few small windows showing some jewellery with a very scary looking guard. I didn't even try to go in.  Ohh well they have three shops so I m heading to another tomorrow. This column is pretty cool and you can lean more about it here

After all the window shopping, I headed here to have my lunch, ( at about 3pm) and I have to say it s a pretty nice place to have lunch. 

After my lunch I had a bit of a look in a tapestry shop and wandered around Ille St. Louis then headed home. I did go for a wander later last night and got to get some lovely night photos, but haven't had a chance to load them up yet.

Au Revoir

Googy Girl