Tag Archives: Paris

The Paris Opera House

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From its completion in 1875 until 1989, the Paris opera house on the Avenue de l’Opéra in the 9th arrondissement was simply known as “Opéra de Paris”. But with the completion of the Opéra Bastille on Place de la Bastille arose the need to distinguish between the two, and so the old opera house is now referred to by the name of its architect, the Opéra Garnier.

A failed assassination attempt on emperor Napoléon III when he visited the then-opera Le Peletier with his wife in January 1858 accelerated the project of a new opera house.
The site was chosen by Baron Haussmann who planned it to surround it with the characteristic Immeubles de Rapport (Revenue Houses) that you’ll remember from a previous post.

The large Avenue de l’Opéra Haussmann planned would not only create a vast perspective and showcase the new opera house, it would also allow for a swift and unencumbered escape route for the emperor from the opera to the Louvre in the event of another attack.

Still today, the Avenue de l’Opéra has no trees so as not to obstruct the view.

The chosen site however turned out to be far from ideal to accommodate a palatial building such as the opera house. Despite sinking wells and having pumps operate non-stop, the groundwater level wouldn’t go down. In the end, Garnier designed a double foundation including an enormous cistern.

At the occasion of the World Fair in 1867, still under Napoléon III, the main façade was inaugurated. An anecdote from this inauguration goes like this. The empress, shocked at the sight of the opera building, asks “What kind of style is that? That’s no style! It’s neither Greek, nor Louis XV, not even Louis XVI!” The architect, Garnier replies: “No, the time of those styles are over. This is Napoléon III style!”

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 not only slowed down the works but it also brought about the end of the Second Empire. The Third Republic that followed had financial difficulties and didn’t approve of everything the opera symbolized, and sent Garnier packing, but when the Le Peletier opera burned in 1873, he was called back to finish the works.

Poor Garnier – once the opera was finally completed in 1875, the Third Republic, cutting ties with the past, didn’t even invite him to the inauguration and he had to buy his own ticket!

Until 1989 and the Opéra Bastille, the Opéra Garnier was the biggest theater house in the world. Today, it mainly shows ballet by the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris but also the occasional classic opera.

Location of the Opéra Garnier on a map of Paris
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Open Doors at Foreign Affairs

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As I explained in my previous post, on Heritage Days in September, doors are opened to the public that remain closed the rest of the year. Very popular places to visit are the presidential palace (Palais de l’Élysée) and the various ministries, housed in hôtels or palaces in the center of Paris.

Several years ago, I visited the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in a building on the riverside road Quai d’Orsay, name which was transferred to the ministry by metonymy. “The Quay d’Orsay remained silent on this question”, a journalist might report.

King Henry II (son of François Ier) named the first minister of foreign affairs in 1547, Claude de l’Aubespine. The function was called Secretary of State, and Claude was in charge of the relations with Champagne, Burgundy, Bresse, Savoy, Germany and Switzerland. (He started small.)

The minister’s office and dining room

The Quay d’Orsay was built in 1844-55 specifically to house Foreign Affairs. The interior is in the style of Napoléon III, with the exception of the bathrooms set up in 1938 for the visit of King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth (parents and predecessors of Queen Elizabeth II).

Bathrooms of Queen Elizabeth (silver) and King George VI (gold)

In the Salon de l’Horloge, then-Foreign Affairs minister Robert Schuman pronounced on May 9, 1950 the Schuman Declaration, which laid the foundation for the European integration process resulting in the European Union. This is why May 9 is Europe Day.

Detail from the Salon de l’horloge
Location of the Quai d’Orsay
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Opening Doors in September

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Back in 1984, the French minister for Culture created the “Historic Monuments Open Door Days” in France. The idea was picked up by the Council of Europe, which is not an institution of the European Union but an international organization that predates the European Union and has currently almost 50 member states.

King George V’s bathtub at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

European Heritage Days (the name varies from one country to another) take place in September, and open doors to monuments that are usually closed to the public, or if open, grant free entry, or offer special events and activities, including for children and youth, such as workshops, guided tours, that are not available on a regular basis.

Some sites are more popular than others, such as the French National Assembly

In France, Heritage Days are called Les Journées Européennes du Patrimoine (JEP) and take place on the third weekend of September.

activities and workshops galore at the Château Dourdan south of Paris

In this new series, Opening Doors in Paris, I’ll share some of the open doors I’ve entered over the last fifteen years.

the original machinery of the Eiffel Tower
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July 14 in Paris

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July 14 is the French national holiday, known in the English-speaking world as Bastille Day. The Bastille was a fort meant to defend the Porte Saint Antoine on the east side of the Charles V city wall, and it was stormed and taken by the people on July 14, 1789 and later demolished.
The Storming of the Bastille is commemorated on July 14 since 1880.

In Paris, the celebrations of the 14-juillet, as it is called in French, start on the night before with the Bal des pompiers (the fire-fighters ball) held in the city’s various fire stations. In other French towns, it is either the Bal des pompiers, or the Bal Populaire (the people’s ball), often organized just outside the local town hall. Some towns have their fireworks on July 13, others on July 14.

In Paris, the day begins with the famous parade on the Champs Élysées that is traditionally opened with a fly-over by the Patrouille de France in the national colors bleu-blanc-rouge.

Then the president descends the avenue, accompanied by the Garde Républicaine,  and takes place on the platform installed on the place de la Concorde, where he watches the parade with the government, members of the national assembly and the senate, assorted dignitaries and guests.

The parade descends from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. It is composed of military units on foot, on various motorized vehicles, on horseback, and in the air. The Foreign Legion marches in last place because their step is slowest.
The loudest applause from the spectators along the avenue is always for the firefighters who close the parade with all their different vehicles, for the Paris firefighters are part of the military. (They were founded by Napoléon Bonaparte after a fire broke out during a reception at the Austrian Embassy in 1810 during which around a hundred people died.)

During the day, the public has the occasion to meet the military, notably on the Esplanade des Invalides between the Dome des Invalides and the Seine river, where l’Armée de Terre (the army), l’Armée de l’air (the air force) and la Marine (the navy) are represented.

Show events include visiting tanks and helicopters, parachutists jumping from helicopters in the sky, and more.

The day concludes with a concert on the Champ de Mars that is transmitted live on television and the famous fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.

Spectators on the quays hoping for a good view
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Le Val de Grâce

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In 1645, seven-year-old Sun King Louis XIV, and his mother, Anne of Austria, laid the first stone of the Val de Grâce church. The queen mother this fulfilled an oath she had made earlier, to thank God for giving her a son.

Up until the French Revolution, the ^Val de Grâce was the church of the Royal Val de Grâce Abbey. It is located on the grounds of the Val de Grâce hospital. Thanks to the Benedictine nuns providing medical care to injured revolutionaries, the church was spared much of the desecration and vandalism churches such as Notre Dame and Saint Eustace suffered during the French Revolution. Still, it became a military teaching hospital in 1796.

It remained a military hospital until 2016 and treated normal patients as well as the French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy during their respective mandates.

Today, only the training, research and museum activities remain on site. In 2020, the French president Emmanuel Macron announced it would house three new research institutes, a campus to be completed by 2028.

Location of the Val de Grâce
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The Paris Observatory

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The Paris Observatory was founded in 1667 under Sun King Louis XIV and is the oldest observatory in the world still in operation.

It was to be situated on the Paris Meridian (today at 2°20′ East),  which was for a long time in competition with the Greenwich meridian. On Solstice Day 1667, mathematicians traced the lines on the ground where the observatory was to be built. The Paris meridian bisected the site. Today, it is traced on the ground inside the observatory, and the Avenue de l’Observatoire runs along its axis.

The Paris Meridian can also be traced in the city of Paris by the Arago medallions. 135 originally, some of them have disappeared since 1994. They are named after François Arago, director of the Observatory in the 19th century.

The first directors of the Observatory were four generations of Cassinis: Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Jacques Cassini, César François Cassini de Thury and Jean Dominique Comte de Cassini. They held the office until the French Revolution.

The copula of the observatory houses the Arago telescope. Completed in 1854, it was the biggest of its time, and remained in use for over a hundred years. In the 1880, it conducted photometry measurements of Jupiter’s moons (only four were known at the time, though).

Location of the Paris observatory
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La Sorbonne

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The Sorbonne is a building in the 5th arrondissement in the Latin Quarter. It is named after 13th-century theologist Robert de Sorbon, founder of the Sorbonne College of the Université de Paris, college of theology. The term Sorbonne is also used as metonym for the former Université de Paris (1200-1793 and 1896-1971).

The Baroque façade belongs to the Saint Ursula chapel, completed in 1642. Following the law of the separation between Church and State, it was deconsecrated and is now used for receptions and exhibitions.
It was at the Sorbonne that Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894.

Today, the Sorbonne is the seat of the Paris Board of Education. It also houses part of the activities of the universities Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle and Sorbonne Université. The Sorbonne University Library serves all these universities and the Université de Paris.

Location of the Sorbonne
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The Panthéon – for great men and women

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The Pantheon is located on the Sainte Geneviève mountain in the heart of the Latin Quarter. Built in the 18th century, it was originally meant to accommodate relics of Sainte Geneviéve, the patron saint of Paris, but since the French Revolution, it honors distinguished French citizens, as the inscription on the front says:

AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE
To the great men, from a grateful nation

When the remains of a distinguished person are transferred to the Panthéon, they obtain a almost mythical status. Only very few panthéonisés have been directly buried there, such as Victor Hugo.
The “grands hommes” are still in a large majority men, the first woman was the wife of a grand homme whose family only agreed to the transfer if his wife’s remains could accompany his. The first woman to accede to Pantheéon status on her own merits was Marie Curie. Only three more women have followed her since, two Résistantes, and more recently, Simone Veil.

How do you become a grand homme? Only the national assembly can propose new candidates for the Panthéon, the final decision is made by the president.

On November 30, 2002, Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, was transferred to the Panthéon.
Location of the Panthéon
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Cupolas of Paris

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There are a number of cupolas in the Paris skyline. In this new series, Cupolas of Paris, we will have a look at the most prominent ones and what is hidden below them:

  • The Dôme des Invalides – 7th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
  • The Panthéon – 5th arrondissement – built in the 18th century
  • The Sorbonne – 5th arrondissement – built in the 17th century
  • The Observatory – 14th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
  • The Val de Grâce – 5th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
  • The Institut de France – 6th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
1 Invalides – 2 Panthéon – 3 Sorbonne – 4 Observatory – 5 Val de Grâce – 6 Institut de France
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Denfert-Rochereau intersection

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The Denfert-Rochereau intersection in the 14th arrondissement is known by tourists mainly for the entrance to the catacombs and for the departure of the airport buses to Orly airport. There is, however, a whole lot more. Let’s have a look at the intersection.

No fewer than seven streets intersect here. First, the north-south axis:

  • Avenue Denfert Rochereau to the north, it leads to Port Royal.
  • Avenue du Général Leclerc to the south, it leads to Porte d’Orléans (see also La Libération).
  • To the west, rue Froidevaux, which runs alongside Montparnasse cemetery in the direction of Montparnasse.
  • To the east, boulevard Saint Jacques which turns into boulevard Auguste Blanqui and runs towards Place d’Italie, with a partially overground stretch of metro line 6.
  • To the northeast, boulevard Arago, and to the southeast, along the train line, avenue René Coty, leading to the Parc Montsouris.

Now for the intersection itself. At its center thrones the Belfort Lion of Paris (3). It is a one-third size copper replica of the Belfort Lion, both of which were created by Auguste Bartholdi. It looks in the direction of the Statue of Liberty, also created by Bartholdi.
The Belfort Lion in the city of Belfort, in eastern France, is a red sandstone monumental sculpture commemorating the heroic French resistance during the siege of Belfort during the Franco-Prussian war.

A view of the northern side of the intersection

On the east side of the intersection, between Saint Jacques and René Coty, is the Denfert Rochereau station, served by metro lines 4 and 6 and the RER B which leads to both Paris airports, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle in the north and Orly in the south. Outside the station, there’s the Orly airport bus station (4).

Denfert station, currently undergoing works

At the center of the intersection, south of the lion, the lodges of the barrière d’Enfer, an entry point of the General Farmers tax wall house two museums: the Paris catacombs on the east side (2) and the Museum of the liberation of Paris on the west side (1).

Denfert tax lodge with entrance to the Catacombs
Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, tax lodges and Denfert station

The lower part of the Place Denfert was renamed in 2004 to Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy to honor this communist resistant (1908-2002) who led the insurrection of the capital in August 1944 from his command post in the catacombs underneath the intersection.

The Paris Catacombs
Location of the Denfert Rochereau intersection
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