Avenue de l'Opéra
Encyclopedia
The Avenue de l'Opéra is a Haussmanian
Baron Haussmann
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann , was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris...

 avenue situated in the centre of Paris, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It runs from the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 to the Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...

, which was Paris's main opera until it was replaced by the Opéra Bastille
Opéra Bastille
L'Opéra Bastille ' is a modern opera house in Paris, France. It is the home base of the Opéra national de Paris and was designed to replace the Palais Garnier, which is nowadays mainly used for ballet performances....

in 1989.

Unlike most Parisian avenues, there are no trees. This is the result of a compromise between Haussmann and Charles Garnier, the architect of the Opera House, who desired the best view possible of the main facade of the Opera at the end of the avenue. He did not want the view to be obstructed by the leaves and branches.

The avenue is very popular with tourists and as such is lined with travel agencies, banks, and shops selling cliche Parisian merchandise. It is close to a small Japanese district on rue Sainte-Anne.

History

Initially, the Butte Saint-Roch was located at the level of the current rue des Pyramides. Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...

 installed there culverin
Culverin
A culverin was a relatively simple ancestor of the musket, and later a medieval cannon, adapted for use by the French in the 15th century, and later adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century. The culverin was used to bombard targets from a distance. The weapon had a...

s
to support the attack against the Porte Saint-Honoré.
The mount was a little shortened in 1615, but remained a serious obstacle. The entire area between the Louvre and grand boulevards
Boulevards of Paris
Boulevards of Paris are boulevards which form an important part of the urban landscape of Paris. The boulevards were constructed in several phases by central government initiative as infrastructure improvements, but are very much associated with strolling and leisurely enjoyment in the minds of...

 was occupied by narrow streets and considered as unhealthy and dangerous.

The enormous spoil were used to fill the excavations of the Champ de Mars. To get an idea of the importance of the mount, see the entrance of the church of Saint-Roch where we climb thirteen steps. Before the leveling of the mount, we had to descend seven steps !

A first project (decree of 3 May 1854) was to create an "avenue Napoleon" from the Louvre to the place where the rue de la Paix joins the boulevards.

In the early 1860s, the project of a new opera relaunches the project by a decree of 24 August 1864. Work starts at each end but slowly. The fall of the Second Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...

 in 1870, marks an end of the work, at least for a while. Napoleon Avenue was renamed Avenue of the Opera in 1873. After a public decree of 27 June 1876, work resumed and completed quickly. The last buildings along the avenue were built in 1879.

At n°22, site of the old Hotel des Deux Mondes, closed in 1940. After the war, it was the seat of U.S. secret services.

Trivia

The Avenue de l'Opéra was featured in Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...

's surrealist novel Le Paysan de Paris
Le Paysan de Paris
Le Paysan de Paris is a surrealist book about places in Paris by Louis Aragon which was first published in 1926 by Editions Gallimard.It was dedicated to the surrealist painter Andre Masson and its preface was on the theme of a modern mythology...

(The Parisian Peasant).
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