NIKONCOOLPIX S9300 22mm
/ 5.7
/ 10/1000s
/ ISO 125
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Once you′ve climbed the Grand Staircase and walked around along a side gallery, you find yourself in Avant Foyer, i.e., "the anteroom". In this case, the "ante" relates to the main chamber of Opéra Garnier - the Grand Foyer, to which Avant Foyer is something like an entrance hall. Functionally, it is really like a hallway in your house, with the staircase landing on one side, and room doors on the other. But that′s where the similarities end. First, THIS hallway is 20 m long. Second - look at the ceiling. Bet, you don′t have this in your house.The mosaics on the ceiling are all Greek. There are 4 main scenes from the Greek mythology, depicting famous couples and their stories. I managed to capture three: [from left to right here] Artemis and Endymion, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Eos and Cephalus. There are also Hermes and Psyche somewhere.When they are not depicting mythological characters, the mosaics are just beautiful generic decorations in the style of the 8th-century Byzantium.
It is written somewhere on the ceiling in Greek: "Decorative mosaic was applied for the first time in France to the ornamentation of this chamber and the popularisation of this art."Let′s just have a look at these magnificent decorations, from all possible angles. The chandeliers of Avant Foyer are designed by Charles Garnier himself, also in Byzantine style.At each end of Avant Foyer there are 2 small rooms, the Salon of the Sun and the Salon of the Moon. This one is Salon de la Lune (Salon of the Moon), as you can see by the stars on the cupola, and the owls hunting bats in its centre.This little chamber is an entrance vestibule for a long hall, which acted as a smoking room. Garnier actually planned for it to be installed at the entrance of Galerie du Glacier, the Glacier Gallery, a long hall on the opposite other side of the building (Moon = cold, get it?). ⇨ ⇨ Whereas Salon du Soleil (Salon of the Sun) [not pictured here, this is still the Moon room], was supposed to be the entrance to the smoking hall (Sun = hot). But, what the customer wants, is one thing, and what the contractor does, is sometimes another. They inadvertently reversed the salons in the rush for the opening night...Press ESC to exit
