Peering into his opera box is an all time highlight of the guided tour!. Listen out for tales of Phantom of Opera in particular on the guided tour. The guided tour even involves a 20 minute session in the auditorium where you will be seated while listening to stories about the ballet artists, elaborate decorations, French society elites who used to attend the Opera, design of the auditorium etc. These expert guides on guided tours unveil mysteries and give keen insights into the culture and history that led to the construction of the Opera Garnier Paris and are always more than happy to answer your doubts and queries. This tour lasts for 1 hour 30 minutes and is available in French, English and Spanish only.This cost is over and above the entrance fee. 7 Euros for a single person and 12 Euros if two tickets are bought together. The costs are higher than the basic tour.The VIP audio tour is offered on an iPad mini.One can walk through the Foyer de la Danse, explore the auditorium, inspect Marc Chagall’s ceiling, the paintings in the Grand Foyer, the façade of the Palais Garnier and chart Palais Garnier’s history through the interactive timeline, all at your own pace. This “Behind the curtain” informative tour takes you through areas usually prohibited to the public. The Audio Guide is multilingual and available in French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.Note, the basic self guided tour does not give you access to the auditorium.You are also required to leave an official photo id as a deposit while you buy the headset. Be sure to have 5-7 Euros in cash for the audio guide as the counter accepts only cash.The audio guide device costs an extra 5 Euros ( over and above the entry fee) but is completely worth the money ( and way cheaper than the guided tour).A few things you should know before going for the Self Guided Audio Tour. The audio guide points out features that you may have overlooked if you were to be walking without a guide or the audio device, hence ensuring that you get the best out of the Palais Garnier tour. The audio guide will help you learn in depth about the building, with anecdotes, documents and lesser known secrets, enriching your experience better. If you choose to independently tour the Palais Garnier, we’d suggest going for an audio guided tour. Viewed through this lens, Palais Garnier sure feels like a ‘sign’ of its time. The Palais Garnier till today remains an iconic symbol of Paris, not just for its magnificent façade and lavish interior, but for the era it represents: a France that had weathered a century of disruption and revolution. The Opera Garnier was part palace, part temple, part administrative center a space where money was the new king, the new power, the new god. At the time it opened, Palais Garnier was the world's largest theatre and opera house. In the late 19th century French society, one did not go to the Opera to view the mastery and grace of artists but to show off your wealth and power to be aroused.Īfter 15 years of construction plagued by setbacks like the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War and Siege of Paris, the Paris Commune, ultimate fall of France’s second Empire, and an 1873 fire the Palais Garnier was inaugurated on Januray 5, 1875. The Palais Garnier is a blend of architectural styles and the freedom endowed on Charles to experiment with a totally atypical dimension allowed this to manifest. This was keeping in mind France’s late 19th century, post-revolutionary, industrialized society. The intention was to keep the Palais Garnier as a place for the wealthy and powerful where the rich would aspire to be spotted. Out of the 171 proposals submitted, Charles Garnier a little-known 35-year-old architect won the comission to build Paris’s Opera House.Ĭharles Garnier’s winning architectural plan devised mounting a spectacle a within a spectacle, in lieu with Napoleon III ‘s bourgeoisie tastes. A contest was organised to attract proposals for the construction of the Palais Garnier. Palais Garnier’s history dates back to 1860, under the auspices of Emperor Napoleon III as a part of civic planner Baron Haussmann’s plan to renovate and transform all of Paris.

Paris opera garnier tours