Tour Route and Duration

The tour starts at Place de l'Opéra and covers 18 stops inside Palais Garnier, from floor 0 to floor 3, in about an hour. That may sound like a lot of floors, but each one is low-ceilinged and most of the highlights are on the third floor, so there's no need to worry about a long, leg-tiring walk.

First, we'll look at the building's exterior and its sculptures from the square before heading inside. It's about a five-minute walk from the square to the entrance, so rather than arriving right at your entry time, aim to get there 10 to 20 minutes early and start listening. At the entrance, ticket holders line up on the left and those without tickets on the right.

Inside, we'll cover floors 0 through 3. In France, as elsewhere in Europe, floors are numbered from 0, so the ground floor is floor 0 and the floor above it is floor 1. On floor 0 we'll see the circular rotunda and the fountain, then climb to floor 1 for the famous Grand Staircase before going up two more levels. On floor 3 we'll step into the auditorium to see the chandelier and seating made famous by The Phantom of the Opera, along with Chagall's ceiling painting, and then explore the refreshment rooms, the banquet hall and other corners of the building. Next, we'll come back down to floor 2 and stop in front of the orchestra room to talk about the dance rehearsal studios behind the stage. We'll finish on floor 1 with the story behind the opera house's underground water tank.

Tracks that deserve extra attention are marked with a star (★) in the title. If you only want the essentials, listen to the starred tracks alone; if you'd like the full experience, simply give the starred ones your closest attention.