For the 1900 Paris Exposition, among many other structures, two great halls were built: the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais. We've visited the former on numerous occasions. Its collections are world-class, and it would be a featured museum in any other city in the world. And a couple of the best exhibitions we've seen anywhere were at the Petit Palais. (Enter "Petit Palais" and "Paris 1900" in the search box). We'd never made it to the humongously-larger Grand Palais and, lo, it has been closed for renovation for at least the last umpteen years. It reopened, finally, in June, and was high on our list of must-sees. As can be seen from the outer-space view photo below, the Grand Palais is beyond humongous, and what was finally opened was just the great hall. It was impressive enough. I'll mostly let the interior pix speak for themselves. We were there June 17th.
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The Petit Palais, on the right, is huge enough to get lost in; the Grand
Palais is maybe ten times larger; be impressed... |
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| Full frontal of the Grand Palais; thanks, Wikipedia |
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| Approaching from the Champs Elysees |
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| General De Gaulle presiding over the scene |
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The architectural, sculptural, and other aesthetic aspects are pretty
overwhelming |
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| Petit Palais across the street |
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| More of the exterior of the Grand Palais |
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| Now inside the Grand Palais, looking up at the crossing, as it were |
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| Nave |
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| So fin de siecle... |
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| Looking down the length of the great hall |
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Ernesto Neto's fabric/sculpture thing; which was not the main focus
of our attention |
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| Pano |
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| Fabric sculpture bit |
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| Not that far away |
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| Neto sculpture |
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| Moi, drumming; very briefly |
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Inside the Grand Palais for an exhibition, 1909; six years after Kittyhawk...
note the assembled aircraft...this kind of thing was normal for the Grand
Palais; in the next several years, it will host some of the collections from
the Pompidou, while it undergoes renovation... |
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