page_title: L'Opéra restaurant
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: L'Opéra restaurant / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of L'Opera restaurant, inside the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris.
context_page_description: L'Opéra Restaurant is a restaurant in Paris, France. Built into the Palais Garnier opera house's east facade, the restaurant is at the intersection of Gluck and Halévy streets, at the Place Jacques Rouché, in the 9th arrondissement. The restaurant premiered in 2011, 136 years after the Opera itself was opened.
context_section_description: Located behind the east facade of the Opera Garnier, the restaurant occupies space where horse-drawn carriages entered to drop off opera patrons, when the building was first erected. The restaurant's interior was designed by French architect Odile Decq. The restaurant's layout consists of a lounge and mezzanine in addition to a reception hall, as well as a large outdoor terrace.
  Given the historic monument status of the building, the architect was obliged to create the restaurant without making use of any original walls, pillars, or other structural elements. A veil of undulating glass is held in place by a single strip of steel, erected between the pillars. Decq has referred to the restaurant as a "phantom," possibly a reference to The Phantom of the Opera (a story set in, and inspired in part by real events at, the Opera Garnier). From Decq's portfolio:
  Like a « phantom », silent and insidious, the soft protean curves of the mezzanine level float above the dinner guests, covering the space with a surface that bends and undulates. The facade of the restaurant is a veil of sinuous glass, sliding around each pillar.
  The design creates a space that highlights the restaurant as a distinct entity within the Opera Garnier, not by imitating the existing details of the monument, but respecting it, while affirming the restaurant's own contemporary character.
caption: Interior of L'Opera restaurant, inside the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris.
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