Last weekend the national heritage days were celebrated in France: a lot of (more or less) famous places were open for visits - and above all, for free! I'm not that used to playing the tourist, and I must confess I still haven't visited the most prominent monuments in Paris (no Eiffel Tower or Le Louvre for me yet...) so I decided I had to seize this opportunity to catch up a bit.
Unfortunately, unless you don't mind lining up for hours in front of it, you have to wake up extremely early to actually be able to see your dream place; to be sure hundreds of people from all corners of Paris and its suburbs just had the same idea and wanted to visit the very same edifice. Therefore when I innocently went to places I had in mind, people in charge told me that everything was already booked for the day. Or the length of the queue simply discouraged me :-(
I ended up visiting only two places, the Collège des Bernardins (5th arrondissement) and the Opéra Garnier (9th arrondissement).
The Collège des Bernardins, located in the Latin Quarter in Paris, is a 13th century Cistercian building which was fully restored in 2008. Since then, it has been a place where people can exchange ideas, have meetings or training sessions; it supports numerous conferences, exhibitions and events. It also hosts the French Catholic Academy and offers biblical and theological trainings. It is a really nice building, even though I find a bit disappointing that its vast halls have been converted into numerous and small training rooms.
The Opéra Garnier was long called 'Opéra de Paris', before the Opéra Bastille opened. I have been once at the latter to see Mozart's Zauberflöte, but it is by no means as magnificent as the Opéra Garnier. As one of the most famous places in Paris, the Opéra Garnier is quite an imposing monument, with somehow mixed architecture styles. I had no idea of what was inside, and when I entered it, I found the view absolutely breathtaking: heavily decorated elements, elaborate columns, staircases and statues and Baroque-style ornamentation with gold color everywhere: just WOW. I really loved the 'too much' look of this monument!
Light on column
Shadows in staircase
Magnificent fresco
A dramatic face
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