Paris - Grand Palais - 7me

Plate XLVIII - The Grand Palace…

I must confess to not giving the Grand Palace the attention it deserved during my first trip to Paris. It was, like Notre Dame, the Comédie Française, and so many European attractions I have visited, also undergoing extensive repairs and renovations.

Built for the Paris exhibition of 1900, despite it’s magnificence it remains overshadowed as a Paris landmark by its predecessor from the exhibition of eleven years earlier – the Eiffel Tower. A façade of classical stone construction, and Art Nouveau glass clad ironwork, the exhibition hall suffered damage from deteriorating eroding ironwork in June 1993. The nave was closed in November of that year. Listed as an historic monument in 2000, extensive structural repairs continued until 2005, and façade restoration continues. The Palace has been saved.

I mentioned the Eiffel Tower, perhaps an unfair comparison but perhaps not considering that the Grand Palace consumed some 500 tons more steel in its construction than the tower, and began with a universal briefing that it should outdo its 1889 rival. The decorative sculptures commissioned for embellishment of the palace are decidedly baroque in style, the most notable being George Récipons quadrigas placed on the corners of the main façade.

A major three year programme to expand the facilities, doubling the floor space, was announced in 2008, meaning that Paris’s premier exhibition venue will regain its crown and set an international benchmark for facilities of this nature.

I must go back and see.