The Grand Foyer and Garnier's Bust

"Grand" simply means "big," so the Grand Foyer is, literally, the "big foyer." It served both as a place for audience members to gather and rest and as a banquet hall. Garnier is said to have modeled it on the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, and it is the most lavish space in the Opéra Garnier. Like the Hall of Mirrors, it is overwhelmingly opulent.

The ceiling paintings are the work of the French artist Paul Baudry, who took about eight years to finish them. In the center are paintings depicting kinds of art, including poetry, tragedy, music and comedy, and the Muses surround them, each shown with her own attribute. Two of them will look familiar from the Grand Staircase. Melpomene, goddess of tragedy, wears her mask pushed up on top of her head and holds a sword, while Thalia, goddess of comedy, holds a staff.

On the wall by the loggia is a bust of Charles Garnier. It's sculpted to look like a handsome Frenchman out of a comic book, and below it is a carving of the Opéra Garnier itself, the architect's most famous work.

In the past, women were reportedly not allowed into this grand banquet hall. But in 1875, when Queen Isabella II of Spain visited the Opéra Garnier, she ignored the custom and insisted on going in. She might have been a woman, but she was also a head of state, so she couldn't be stopped. Isabella II thus became the first woman to enter the Grand Foyer, and afterward other women were able to enter the hall too.