Interior Details, Opéra Garnier – Paris, France

After entering the Phantom-like entry foyer I discussed yesterday, you must climb these impressive stairs to get to the main level. While these are remarkable, this staircase is not even the large one. That comes later.

I visited Paris nearly two years ago, and I’m starting to forget some details. These two pictures confused me. As I recall, you can go left or right up the stairs from the main entry foyer — most of the building is built symmetrically. From the curve of the staircase, the first top picture is the left staircase.

However, in this second photo, the staircase curves gently the other way, which means it is from the right side. I must have visited and photographed both staircases for completeness. While my framing isn’t the same between the two, you can tell the architectural details are mirror images of each other.

While I’m satisfied overall, I would’ve preferred a wider-angle lens. I shot these with a 24mm equivalent but couldn’t frame the scene the way I wanted. See how the opening at the top curves around? Ideally, I would’ve loved to fully capture the entire curve while still including the leading lines of the stairs going up. It’s challenging to convey the scale of these places with a two-dimensional photograph.

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