Paroissien’s in Paris

Last night we had the privilege of attending a performance of the ballet at the Opera Garnier - the most beautiful Opera house I have ever seen - the opulance defies description.     Built in the late 1860’s as part of Baron Haussman’s redesign and rebuilding of Paris, it was renovated in 2000.   The main  marble staircase leads to many small balconies - all marble, and the main ante room is filled with cherubs and angels and stunning paintings.   
The auditorium itself is all red velvet and whilst there is standard seating in the stalls area, the rest of the 3 circles comprise of boxes where patrons sit on confortable velvet covered chairs.
Jenny King and I were actually doing a tour of the Opera House a couple of weeks when she expressed a dream to see a performance there - so we went to the box office to see what was on - and managed to get 3 tickets for this ballet - a tribute to Jerome Robbins, a French Choreographer - more on the ballet itself in a moment.
Buying the tickets was interesting - we were informed there were only standing tickets or folding chairs in the aisle available - standing tickets were obviously not suitable for us (there are some age limits!!)  so okay, we will take folding chairs - our imagination ran wild - will they be directors chairs, or perhaps canvas stools, or those slatted wood picnic chairs.       The position looked okay - a few rows from the front in the stalls.
We arrived early to enjoy a glass of champagne and take a few photos, then proceeded to our seats - well, these folding seats where beautiful little velvet covered seats attached to the end of each row in the centre aisle.      You pulled it out and down - and there we sat - fantastic position.    But of course the seats when ’sat upon’ took up the whole aisle, so we had to go in last and leave first so everyone else could get out - can imagine the fire people in Australia having an apopletic fit if they saw how everyone was fitted in!!   But hey, who are we to argue.

And the ballet itself was fantastic.     First  danse was  in modern style to music by Ravel, the second piece a very modern dance.    After interval, Chopin was the composer with the first dance being in the true classical style - pas de deux’s, tulle dresses and much romanticism. And the last piece was also to chopin but a very light hearted dance where much fun and laughter was enjoyed by us all - it was certainly a new experience laughing during a ballet -  a great finale to a wonderful night in the most beautiful opera house - I haven’t been to Milan but Paris  would have to rate in the top two or three in the world for magnificence.

So, another ‘wow’ for Paris

Home on the metro - Jen’s daughter Amy had arrived from London for a few days so after a bite to eat, we went off to bed very happy and relaxed.