Castles · Tour
Palais Royal to Opéra Garnier on Foot: Place Vendôme and the Perfume Museum
The Opéra district is where Paris keeps the trades it is famous for, and this walk takes them in order. It starts in the Palais Royal, ends at the Palais Garnier, and in between covers the streets where French clothing, fashion accessories, perfume, beauty products, homeware and gourmet food are all sold within a few hundred metres of each other. That concentration is not an accident of retail. In France fashion is part of the national identity, and the guide explains how it got that way rather than just pointing at the windows. Jewellery has the clearest story of the lot. The history of French jewellery-making runs through one square, Place Vendôme, where the first of the great houses set up in 1893 and the rest followed. Walk round it and the whole trade is on three sides of one address. The Palais Garnier closes the walk. It is the opera house Paris puts on its postcards, and by the time you reach it you have crossed a district that made its money on beautiful objects and then built a palace to listen to music in.
What's included
- Walking tour, learning about the history and culture.
Itinerary
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2 à 7 Galerie de Nemours, 2 Place Colette, Paris
The guide waits in front of the Café Nemours, holding a WALKING TOUR POSTER.
Jardin du Palais Royal
Cardinal Richelieu ordered the palace in 1633, built next to the Louvre, then the royal residence, so the minister could stay close to his king. A few steps from the Louvre and screened by government and cultural buildings, the Constitutional Council, the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Comédie-Française and the Théâtre du Palais Royal, lies the Jardin du Palais Royal.
La Comedie Francaise
Molière gets his own stop. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and the Comédie-Française performs them more often than those of any other playwright. Its troupe is the oldest theatre company still working anywhere in the world.
Rue Saint Honore
1,840 metres (6,036 feet) of street tying central Paris to the 8th arrondissement, and the address the fashion houses want. There are cultural and historic sites along the way, but the Haussmann stone facades are mainly a frame for the boutiques, and the walk holds up by day or by night.
Eglise Saint-Roch
126 metres long, on a plan borrowed from Notre-Dame de Paris, which makes Saint-Roch one of the largest churches in the city. It took decades to finish, so the styles change as you walk up it: classical in places, baroque in others.
Place-Vendome
Laid out in 1702 to the glory of the armies of Louis XIV. What stands in the middle now is the Vendôme Column, copied from Trajan's Column in Rome, put up for Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz in 1805. The square is now the address of the jewellery houses.
Palais Garnier
Napoleon III commissioned the opera house as part of his rebuilding of Paris, and a competition was held in 1860 to find the design. The Palais Garnier has been a centre of cultural life ever since, with opera and ballet on its stage.
Musee du Parfum - Fragonard
A few steps from the Opéra Garnier, the Musée du Parfum takes apart how a luxury object that everyone now owns is actually made. The collection of old bottles runs from Ancient Egypt to the 20th century: kohl pots, pomanders, vinaigrettes, perfume burners, pots-pourris, travel sets, smelling salt bottles and precious flasks.
Palais Garnier, Pl. de l'Opéra, Paris
Not included
- Visit inside of the Opera house 14 Euro
Good to know
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
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- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Up to 5 travelers per booking.
- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
- Guiding available in: en, fa, fr.
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