Paris Street Scene

Welcome to Place de L’Opera: an early filmed snapshot of Paris landmark the Palais Garnier.

The façade of the Palais Garnier, in Paris, has always drawn photographers to stand in traffic in order to capture it. The photographer who captured this scene, well over a century ago in the Place de L’Opera, did so with a very unwieldy piece of equipment, cranking the mechanism by hand and mainly guessing the likely outcome. Despite the imperfections of early cinematography – unstable frames, varying speeds – this film is still a fascinating document of an ever-popular location in Paris.