So the first location, Palais Garnier is somewhere I had always wanted to visit, in an online game I played a lot of called LegendMUD the Paris Opera House was described in great detail and the real thing was everything I thought it would be.
Like a lot of things the facade is covered in gold, statues, and busts of various patrons of the opera house.
And yet somehow they it doesn't feel as obnoxious as it does in other places around France.
In fact it could be said that this single building inspired my new love of statue photography haha
The building was originally conceived by Emperor Napoleon III, an interesting fact is that it was due to an attempted assassination as he was leaving the Opera with Empress Eugene, he then declared a competition to design an entirely new Opera House.
In 1860 Charles Garnier won this contest, a site was selected and the land was cleared, however the site contained a huge amount of groundwater which could not be drained.
Garnier then devised a second foundation, in the form of a large concrete tank and watercourse, this would hold the moisture and the weight of the tank helps to stabilize the building.
This is also where the rumors began that the Opera House is built on top of a huge subterranean lake.
During a performance of Helle' in 1896 a tragedy occurred within the Opera house, two of the enormous counterweights which hold the chandelier in place dropped, smashing their way through the ceiling and killing Madame Chomette an audience member. This tragedy as well as the strange rumors of an underground lake are the two most significant things which inspired Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera.
It is definitely an amazing building to walk through though, every corner and surface contains some beautiful artwork, or sculpture, and for the massive number it still doesn't feel obnoxious like the Palace of Versailles.
So much beauty in one place was probably the first time I really felt this way in Europe to be honest.
And so many chandeliers! You would think they would have been a little less excited about them after killing a patron.
Next Blog! - Sacre Coueur and famous graves!
References:
Wikipedia Entry for the Building - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier
Article about The Phantom - http://bit.ly/aZT7Y9
Article about the Chandelier Accident - http://bit.ly/189WiVG
Charlies Garnier - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Garnier_(architect)
Gaston Leroux - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Leroux
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