Paris, je t'aime! Part 10: A Night at the Opera

In Part 9 of the Paris posts, we climbed up the hills of Montmarte and had our best meal of the trip at Jeanne B's!

Getting our culture on!

After we'd finished our shopping for the afternoon, we spent some time at the hotel pre-packing for our departure the next morning and getting all gussied up.  Our plans for the evening included seeing the modern ballet "Decadence" at the Palais Garnier (the opera house we'd passed a few other times during our travels around the city) and having a multi-coursed dinner, and we wanted to look nice.

The ballet started at 8, and our dinner reservations weren't until 10, so we grabbed a quick snack at the Breizh Cafe to tide us over until we ate again.  Breizh was just up the street from Les Tournelles, and it featured cider and crepes/galettes, all of which were great.  As I was researching the trip, Breizh popped up on almost every site and blog I read, so I was worried it would be packed, but we had only a short wait before being seated.  We split a chorizo galette and medium bottle of cider, and then a sweet crepe with coffee for dessert - everything was delicious!

Noms!

Having more time than we thought after our snack, we decided to head on over to the Opera neighborhood, to explore something we missed a few days earlier.  On the first day of our trip, it took WAAAAY longer to get our metro passes than expected, so we cut short our planned exploration of the Paris passages, enclosed shopping streets within the city.  With this extra time we'd just found, we could check this cool item off our list!

The passages have these gorgeous glass ceilings,

and each one houses merchants of a different type.

This was a seller of walking sticks in the Passage Jouffroy

Swords concealed within walking sticks!

After strolling through three or four passages, it was time to head to the Opera proper, although we did stop for a quick shot outside a Carrefour, as the family Chris used to know in Paris was connected with the grocery chain.

They also sponsor the King of the Mountains (KOM)

jersey in the Tour de France,

so that's how I know Carrefour.

The Palais Garnier is really incredible.  It was built in the late 1800s for the Paris Opera, although many productions have recently moved down the road a bit to the Opera Bastille (we wanted to be sure to catch a show inside the original location, however, and you'll soon see why).  Charles Garnier was the architect, hence why it's known as the Palais (palace) Garnier.  When the foundation for the building was poured, the groundwater in the area was found to be higher than expected, and when the eight giant pumps employed to dry things out couldn't keep up with the water flowing in, Garnier instead created a giant cistern under the building; this not only handled the water but also provided a handy source, should something nearby catch on fire.  The cistern started the rumor that the Palais was built over an underground lake, and this led to the idea that a madman lived under the opera house, paddling around the lake and stealing sopranos from the stage.  Sound familiar?  Yup, that's where The Phantom of the Opera came from.

In addition to this, the Palais is absolutely bonkers inside when it comes to decoration; the whole point of going to the theater during this time was to "see and be seen," so Garnier made sure the fancy folks had a great stage upon which to strut their stuff.  We honestly think it even outshines Versailles in this department.  Judge for yourself:

Statues on the outside of the building

Sweaty selfie

I mean, for reals

With about 15 minutes until showtime, we headed for our seats, which were on the highest level, in a box on the far right side of the stage (they were inexpensive).  You can't get into the boxes on your own; instead, you show your ticket to an attendant, and he unlocks your box for you, ushering you inside (this caused some amusement when I left the box to go the bathroom with about 10 minutes to go before the show - he was like, didn't I just let you in?  I had to convince him it was indeed, still me, and not my twin sister).

The row of boxes on our floor

Tile work on the floor

We ended up being the only folks in our box, which sat six people; we were in the two chairs right on the railing, and a small step behind us held two more chairs, another step, and then the final two.  A curtain hung behind that, to shield the folks in the box, should the door need to be opened.

Shooting toward the back of the crowd from our seats

We were very close to the stage

The other chairs in the box and the curtain

The ceiling in the hall was also incredible - it was painted by Marc Chagall and featured scenes from famous plays, operas, ballets, and the like.

We enjoyed the ballet - it was modern dance and avant garde in style, which was cool.  It lasted about 80 minutes without an intermission, and afterwards, we hoofed it back to the metro and headed out to our dinner destination, Le Chateaubriand.  Le Chat only offers one multi-course tasting menu, but we were ready!  The food was all delicious - flavors that were local to the area (and sometimes, very different from what we'd normally eat) with new, interesting preparations.  Unfortunately, the kitchen was in the weeds for a good portion of our meal, so we ended up waiting for some of courses for what seemed like a really long time.  By the time we were done, we were stuffed, but we were also exhausted - we didn't leave until after midnight!

One of our earliest courses - 

crispy little langostines in curry/tumeric powder.

They were good!

After settling up, we ended up grabbing a cab for the short ride back to the hotel; all we wanted to do was crash, since we'd be up early the next day to head out of town.  However, when we entered our room, we both immediately grabbed our noses - what had happened?  Did we have a sewer leak?  Did our toilet back up?  We investigated the room and bathroom, finding no obvious reason for the funky stink, until we noticed it being particularly strong in the corner where we stored our purchases from earlier in the day.  We asked the cheese monger for a robust cheese, and he hadn't let us down!  After opening the windows and airing things out a bit, we finally hit the hay.

Later!

Amy

P.S. - 25, 602 steps today!  Holy moly!