We live pretty near the Opera Garnier. Most of the Opera de Paris productions now go on at the Bastille, but the Palais Garnier is still home to the ballet, and is by far the more imposing building (comparison: Bastille, Garnier).
Also, on a more low-brow level, the Phantom of the Opera was set here.
The Place de l'Opera is bustling at this time of year as the sales are hitting Paris. Apparently French law only permits sales once a year! We wandered a little farther on this particular walk, and found a tempting option:
Nearby streets at night, with a view of the Sacré Coeur basilica in the first one:
South of our apartment, we often walk through the Jardin du Palais-Royale, which is attached to the Comedie Francais.
I think the stumps are art of some kind:
And on the back of the Comedie Francais, there's a shop devoted entirely to figurines and lead soldiers. We've thought of buying an army.
If we take another route toward the river, we pass a fabric district, which is decorated for Christmas (?) with a variety of oversized lampshades (??), and some nice art nouveau buildings.
And for the past week, we've been experiencing Paris in the snow:
I am so entertained by the lampshades. We should petition the New York municipal governmant to do that to celebrate something here.
ReplyDeleteLampshade update: I passed them at night, and it turns out they really have lights inside of them. So they actually are lampshades. The street they're on is full of interior decor shops. So weird but I love it.
DeleteAnd lovely pictures they are, too! I echo the enthusiastic response to the lampshades. Garnier looks imposing indeed, and you've successfully taken snow pictures that inspire the response "ooooh!" rather than "brrr." Turner on the artistic stumps is great.
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