Christmas Greetings

Christmas window - La Fayette, Paris

Palais Garnier

The Dance - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
The Paris Opera House was commissioned by Napoleon lll in 1861 and designed by Charles Garnier, but its inauguration in 1875 was too late for Napoleon who had died two years previously 

In the frieze E for Emperor N for Napoleon

Designed in the very popular Beaux Arts style of the time, it symbolised the opulence of the Second Empire. The exterior is one of the impressive landmarks in Paris with an interior of grand chandeliers, sweeping marble staircases and gilt decoration. 

Garnier designed a private turnaround carriageway at the back of the building for Napoleon. He could have arrive securely, leave his carriage to await his return, and come and go as he wished.

 The 'Bassin de la Pythie' is situated below the Grand Staircase. Pythia was a high priestess at the Temple of Apollo, Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassus - this theatrical entrance flanked on each side by a grand sweeping stairway gives a taste of things to come

The double sided Grand Staircase is made from white Cararra marble with a red and green marble balustrade leading up to the Auditorium and the Grand Foyer

At the top of the stairs is a beautiful marble arcade which has some exquisite Venetian mosaic work within the arches

At the centre is a vaulted ceiling showing paintings by artist Isadore Pils of Apollo, Minerva, and Orpheus.

two images courtesy wiki 

 
The inauguration in 1875

This sumptuous, breath taking, gilded Grand Foyer, was modelled on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The domed ceiling was painted by Paul Baudry to represent various moments in the history of music

A close up of the fine details at the bases of the gilt columns

All of the small side foyers are individually decorated, each one having a different but very striking ceiling.

With the opening of Opéra Bastille in 1989 the Palais Garnier lost its role as the main opera house in Paris. It is now the principal home of ballet although it still does host some opera

In 1960 the French Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux controversially commissioned Marc Chagall to repaint the ceiling in the auditorium. Rather than destroy the original painting by Jules-Eugène Lenepveu, Chagall painted his canvass on a removable frame. Twenty years later, however, the original painting by Lenepveu was removed to the Musée d'Orsay where it is now on display.

Chagall's painting celebrates the music of both opera and ballet by 14 different composers. At its centre is the grand chandelier made of bronze and weighing a staggering 7 tonnes.

La Défense

 via wiki
Looking from the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs-Elysées in a westerly direction La Grande Arche de la Défense is clearly visible from the city 

The Grande Arche and esplanade stand at the heart of La Défense which is Europe's largest built business district filled with acres of glass and steel buildings.

Charles de Gaulle was responsible for leading an effort to level this area and concentrate skyscrappers in a single district rather than altering the character of downtown Paris by filling it with large commercial properties.

Each of the buildings tells a story about the architectural trends that were in vogue at the time of their construction. La Défense now gives us an interesting overview of this most recent period in our history of architecture

La Défense is considered a good and very much cheaper option for a place to stay in Paris. It has wonderful views across Paris which are particularly dramatic at night - there are lots of very good quality restaurants selling food from around the globe - a huge shopping mall - cinema - museum - church; it also has excellent quick train links that will whisk you straight into the city center, easily take you out to the interesting suburbs of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, or even take you for a day out to Versailles

Subterranean Paris

Underground Paris resembles a Swiss cheese with hundreds of kilometers of tunnels built during Roman times lying far below the elegant Parisian boulevards and metro.

However, only a small section is actually accessible to the general public.

That is, apart from a faceless, covert, underworld group of people, known as "Cataphiles". They enter the vast network of tunnels that criss cross the city illegally by way of secret entrances. It is estimated that at least 300 Cataphiles visit this dark labyrinth every week crawling along the narrow, low passageways, dropping down or climbing up through small holes to different levels, and often encountering unexpected obstacles and hazards such as rock falls, flooding, and large pools of water. I can only assume that the dangers experienced in this dark, mysterious, unmapped, underground world excites them and is accompanied by an extreme adrenaline rush. 

The descent for the paying public is via a stone spiral stairway of 130 steps; including exploring the passages the whole visit lasts approximately one hour. I should say that it is not a good idea to go if you have any anxieties about being underground or find descending or ascending steps for a long distance difficult.

Between street level and the area where the Catacombs are located, the visitor travels back in geological time for nearly 45 million years. Descending through a succession of rock layers before reaching a limestone bank from the Lutetian period. The Roman name for Paris was Lutetia, and the limestone cut from that stage provides very high quality cut stone commonly referred to as "pierre de Paris" - Parisian stone. Notre Dame, The Louvre, and  most of Paris's principal buildings were built from this stone.

 This shell was more than one metre in length

Entrance to the Catacombs - "Stop, this is death's empire!"
 Thus begins the pathway that leads through the remains of more than six million Parisians.  

Overflowing cemeteries were a huge problem for 18th century Paris. Those living in the neighbourhood of Les Halles near Les Innocents, the city's oldest and largest cemetery, were amongst the first to complain. They reported that the cemetery exuded a strong smell of decomposing flesh. 
In 1763, Louis XV issued an edict banning all burials from occurring inside the capital. At that time the church was very powerful and chose to ignore the ruling as it did not want it's cemeteries disturbed or moved. However, in 1780 a prolonged period of spring rains caused walls around Les Innocents to collapse, spilling rotting corpses into the surrounding neighbourhood, this episode finally resulted in the removal of millions of bones from various city cemeteries into the quarry. The task took 12 years to complete with some of the oldest bones dating back more than 1,200 years.

The Inspector General of the Quarries, Héricart de Thury was responsible for developing the Ossuary. The long bones and skulls were arranged decoratively to form a back wall behind which other bones were piled. He also created signage indicating from which Parisian cemetery the bones originated.

The Catacombs became a great curiosity for the more privileged Parisians - the first known visitor of note was the Count of Artois, later France's King Charles X. 

 via

Public visits began during the beginning of the early 19th century but infrequently. As a result of the wave of increasing curiosity that attracted a growing number of visitors the government decided to allow monthly visits. Today the Catacombs are open every day apart from Mondays and some Public holidays throughout the year.

Crypt of the Passion: The Barrel

At midnight on the 2nd April 1897, a two hour clandestine concert was held around The Barrel attended by 100 members of Parisian "high society"  which featured Chopin's Funeral March, La Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, and Marche Funèbre from Beethoven's Eroica.