Thurs May 13th: Tuileries, Opera Garnier, John Malkovich

After a leisurely cold and rainy morning, I took a bus ride over to the area near the Jardin du Tuileries (Tuileries Garden) - a beautiful park with statues and pond. Great place to sit and relax for a bit. A zillion monuments nearby.

I spent some time exploring the area around the Tuileries and took a lot of photos. It was after 5pm when I finally got back to the apartment. later than I'd expected. I took a break then started getting ready for the performance at the Opera Garnier (opera house).

Opera Garnier
The Opera Garnier is a phenomenally beautiful building (in a city of beautiful buildings). This is the place where the chandelier fell and inspired the story for the Phantom of the Opera (my favorite musical).

Before I'd ever stepped inside, the opera house was on my short list of Paris favorites in terms of architecture. Arriving at Opera Garnier in the evening and seeing it fully lit was a great start. As I walked inside, it literally took my breath away. Since I arrived early, I decided to check out the opera house.

I don't have enough superlatives for this place. The statues, embellishments and details are beyond words. This is over the top, even for Paris. Check out Palais Garnier on Wikipedia.

I thought I had a good seat for the performance. When I was directed up another flight of stairs I started to wonder. Then, I saw a series of doors and each one had a number. A woman with a key looked at my ticket and let me in one of the doors. My seat was at the front of one of the private loge boxes to the left of the stage.

It was like a little condo inside with a place to hang coats, a mirror and three pairs of chairs with dark wood and red velvet seats. After I got settled, I looked up at the ceiling of the opera house and remembered that Chagall had painted it. Amazing. Three loge-mates arrived just before the performance began.

Le Comedie Infernale
There was a special performance tonight (one night only). It was Le Comedie Infernal Confessions of a Serial Killer with John Malkovich. When I booked, I wasn't quite sure what I would be seeing. The description was "classical music with narration by John Malkovich." I'm not a big time opera fan so this looked like a good option.

The performance was comprised of a conductor, a 30 piece orchestra, two sopranos and John Malkovich doing, what was essentially, a one-man show about Jack, an Austrian man who is a a paroled killer who becomes a writer then goes back to murdering and becomes a prolific serial killer. Jack commits suicide just before his conviction for additional murders.

The sopranos represented women that were part of Jack's life at different stages (mother, girlfriend, prostitutes, murder victims). The music was classical, Malkovich spoke English with a Bavarian accent (there were French super titles above the stage). It sounded like the sopranos were singing in Italian. Despite some too long arias, it was a good show. After two hours with no intermission, it felt good to walk for a bit.

Light Show at the Eiffel Tower
In the evening, I can hear people cheering as the the Eiffel Tower light show begins (on the hour from 9pm until 1am). After hearing the cheering every night, I decided I wanted to experience the light show first hand while I'm here. After grabbing a late supper at the our Eiffel cafe on the corner, I stopped by the Eiffel Tower plaza just as the 11pm light show began. It was fun to witness first-hand.

Ratatouille
On the way back to the apartment I cut thru the Champ du Mars. With all the military guys around, it's pretty safe at night. Guess who is out late at night raiding the trash cans of the Champ du Mars? Ratatouille and his friends. Good thing I'm not squeamish about rodents.

Bonne Nuit