Paris is home to two world-class opera houses, the historic Palais Garnier and the more contemporary Opéra de la Bastille. Operated under the same organizational umbrella, they offer a variety of spellbinding operatic, orchestral and ballet performances throughout their jam-packed seasons. Music and dance aficionados will be thrilled by performances at either national treasure.
There really is a lake beneath the old opera house in Paris, just as The Phantom of the Opera says. No phantoms are boating on it, however, as far as anyone knows. The “lake,” which is more like a water-filled hole, has a more mundane purpose; it’s a reservoir used by the city’s pompiers-sapeurs (firefighters).