The Opera, Parc Monceau and the Chaillot district

Starting point and access: Place de l’Opéra.
- Metro – Lines 3, 7 and 8. Take Exit 1 at Place de l’Opéra.
- RER – Line A (Auber station; follow the signposted connection to the metro).
- Bus – Lines 20, 21, 22, 27, 29, 32, 45, 52, 66, 68, 95.

(S) As you leave the metro exit, which is in the middle of the square, turn right and cross at the pedestrian crossing. Turn right immediately at the corner by a restaurant, then veer left into Rue Auber and walk alongside the Palais Garnier. At the next junction, turn sharply left into Rue Scribe. At the end of the street, turn right onto Boulevard des Capucines.

Take the^first right, Rue Édouard VII. Cross the square, which features an equestrian statue of the king, and go under a portico. At the Fork in the road under the portico, turn right into Square de l’Opéra Louis Jouvet (equestrian statue).

At the end, turn right into Rue Boudreau. Immediately cross Rue Auber at the pedestrian crossing and follow it to the left. At the next junction, take the^second right, Rue de Caumartin. At the traffic lights, cross Boulevard Haussmann, continue along Rue de Caumartin and pass under the walkway connecting the two buildings of a famous department store.

(1) At the junction, turn left onto Rue de Provence. Then cross Rue du Havre and, at the end of the street, turn left to cross Boulevard Haussmann again. Follow the boulevard to the right and take the^first left, Rue de l’Arcade.

Cross Rue des Mathurins (note the clock and the decoration on the building on the left) and carry on straight ahead. Opposite No. 34, turn right into Passage Puteaux (a covered passageway). At the exit, turn right onto Rue Pasquier and cross Rue des Mathurins again.

(2) Opposite No. 36, turn left into Square Louis XVI and you will find yourself in front of the pediment of the Expiatory Chapel. Walk round the chapel on the left, leave the square onto Rue des Mathurins and follow it to the right. At the junction, turn right onto Rue d’Anjou (note the building and its decorations on the left-hand corner). When you reach the chancel of the chapel, turn left onto Rue Lavoisier.

Cross Boulevard Malesherbes (there is a pedestrian crossing on the right-hand side) and note the Church of Saint-Augustin on your right. Continue along Rue Lavoisier and, at the end, turn right into Rue d’Astorg. At the next junction, turn left into Rue La Boétie. Go straight on and cross Rue Cambacérès.

(3) At the next set of traffic lights, turn right onto Rue de Miromesnil. Cross Boulevard Haussmann and continue straight on along Rue de Miromesnil. At the next junction, take the^second left onto Rue Threilard. At the fork in the road, turn right onto Rue Corvetto. Pass Rue Maleville on your left. At the next junction, cross Rue de Lisbonne and continue along Rue de Vézelay.

At the end of the street, turn right onto Rue de Monceau, then left onto Boulevard Malesherbes. Then take the^first left onto Avenue Vélasquez, passing through an imposing gilded gateway.

(4) Enter Parc Monceau and immediately turn right onto Allée Michel Berger. After about a hundred metres, turn sharply left towards a stone arch. Before reaching this arch, turn right towards the colonnade by the water’s edge. At the foot of the colonnade, turn left and walk along the edge of the pond on your right.

You’ll come out onto a wide path; turn right twice to cross the bridge over the far end of the pond. Once off the bridge, go straight on, passing the bust of Maupassant on your right. Then turn left.

Cross a wide path (with a rotunda on the right) and continue straight on. Walk past a roller-skating track on your right, followed by a playground. Cross the Allée de la Comtesse de Ségur and continue straight ahead.

At the^first fork in the road, after about thirty metres (drinking fountain), turn left. At the^second fork in the road, which comes up very quickly (large plane tree in the middle), turn right. Ignore a path branching off to the right and, at the^third fork in the road (columns), turn left. You’ll come out onto a wide path; follow it to the right to leave the park.

(5) Follow Avenue Ruysdaël and immediately turn right onto Rue Murillo. Take the^first left, Rue Rembrandt. Cross Rue de Lisbonne and you’ll reach Place Gérard Oury (the Loo building, a large red pagoda).

Then cross Rue de Courcelles and continue straight ahead onto Rue de Monceau. At the end, cross Boulevard Haussmann in two stages, then turn right. At the next set of traffic lights, turn left onto Rue de Washington, and immediately turn left onto Rue d’Artois.

Cross Rue de Berri and carry on straight ahead. At the next junction, turn right onto Rue Frédéric Bastiat. At the end of the street, turn right onto Rue Paul Baudry.

(6) At the end, turn left onto Rue de Ponthieux, then right to rejoin Rue La Boétie. Cross the Champs-Élysées at the traffic lights and follow the avenue to the left for about a hundred metres. Take the^first right onto Rue Marbeuf.

At the next junction, turn right onto Rue François^Ier. Then take the^first left, Rue de Cerisoles. At the end, turn right onto Rue Clément Marot, then left onto Rue Pierre Charron.

(7) Cross Avenue Georges V (note the American Cathedral on the left) and continue along Rue Pierre^Ier de Serbie. Cross Avenue Marceau, follow it to the right and walk alongside the façade of the Church of Saint-Pierre de Chaillot.

Then take a sharp left into Rue de Chaillot and walk past the chancel of the church. At the next junction, turn right into Rue Georges Bizet. At the end, follow Avenue d’Iéna to the left for about fifty metres. Cross the avenue at the traffic lights in two stages, and you’ll emerge onto Place des États-Unis at the foot of the monument to the American volunteers.

(8) Then turn right and follow Avenue d’Iéna. Next, take the^first left onto Rue Galilée (note the sculptures framing the gateway at No. 30).

At the end of the street, cross Place des États-Unis again and go round Square Thomas Jefferson on the left (monument to La Fayette and Washington, with a view of the Eiffel Tower). Continue along Rue Galilée and cross Rue de l’Amiral Hamelin (a beautiful building on the right). At the end of the street, turn left onto Avenue Kléber.

(9) At the traffic lights, cross the avenue to the right to follow Rue Boissière. At the next junction, turn left onto Rue Lauriston. Continue to the end of the street. Cross Rue Saint-Didier and turn left onto Avenue Raymond Poincaré. Follow the avenue straight on until you reach Place du Trocadéro.

Start your walk around the square on the right-hand side. After crossing Avenue Georges Mandel, walk along the wall of Passy Cemetery and pass by the foot of the monument honouring the soldiers of the First World War. Carry on and you’ll soon reach the metro station (E).

To get back home:
- Metro: lines 6 and 9.

A good pair of trainers is all you need for this urban walk.

Toilets and drinking fountains are available in the public gardens (shown on the map). There are bars, restaurants and shops along the route.

A detailed map is required (at the very least, the one accompanying this description).

Public park opening times:
Square Louis XVI:
- Opens: 8.00 am on weekdays, 9.00 am on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
- Closing: 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm, depending on the season. See detailed opening hours.
Parc Monceau:
- Opens: 7.00 am every day.
- Closing: 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm, depending on the season. See detailed opening hours.

Walk undertaken by the author on 28 November 2018.

From Place de l’Opéra (S) to Square Louis XVI (2):
- Palais Garnier (1875), designed by the architect Charles Garnier (1825–1898). For a long time, it was the only building in Paris to house an opera house, before the construction of the Opéra Bastille.
- Place Édouard VII: equestrian statue of the king, and the theatre of the same name.
- Square de l’Opéra Louis Jouvet: statue of the poet riding Pegasus and the Théâtre de l’Athénée, of which Louis Jouvet was director.
- The buildings of the Le Printemps department store (1865–1874), at the junction of Rue de Caumartin and Boulevard Haussmann.
- Former headquarters of the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits (1903), at the junction of Rue de l’Arcade and Rue des Mathurins: large clock and corner decoration.

From Square Louis XVI (2) to Parc Monceau (4):
- The Expiatory Chapel (1826). The chapel was built on the site of the former Madeleine Cemetery, where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were buried in 1973 following their execution (their remains were transferred to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1815, during the Restoration). The chapel is open to visitors (€6 per person as of November 2018).
- At No. 21 Rue La Boétie, the former site of the Rosenberg art gallery. During the Occupation, the building was requisitioned by the Nazis to house an anti-Semitic propaganda office.
- At No. 23 Rue La Boétie, the painter Pablo Picasso had his studio from 1918 to 1937.

From Parc Monceau (4) to Rue de Ponthieux (6):
- Parc Monceau, laid out between the second half of the 18th century and the second half of the 19th. It features various statues, a naumachia, a pond flanked by a colonnade taken from an unfinished building in Saint-Denis, and a rotunda, a remnant of the Farmers-General’s wall.
- Rue Murillo, lined with townhouses, including two at nos. 6 and 8 in the Neo-Louis XIII style.
- Maison Loo, named after its former owner who, in 1925, had a private mansion converted into this pagoda-shaped house.

From Rue de Ponthieux (6) to Place des États-Unis (8):
- Views of the Arc de Triomphe.
- Saint-Pierre de Chaillot Church (1938), a Byzantine-inspired concrete church. Open to the public during the day (please refrain from visiting during services).
- Monument to the American Volunteers (1923), Place des États-Unis. The monument depicts a ‘Poilu’ and a ‘Sammy’ shaking hands in front of a winged victory figure. It is crowned by a statue of a soldier modelled on the American poet Alan Seeger, born in New York in 1888, who enlisted in 1914 and died at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

From Place des États-Unis (8) to Place du Trocadéro (E):
- Monument to Lafayette and Washington, Square Jefferson. A bronze sculpture by Bartholdi, presented to France by the United States in 1895.
- Views of the Eiffel Tower.
- At No. 30 Rue Galilée, a Neo-Renaissance building dating from 1895 with a doorway flanked by caryatids.
- At the junction of Rue Galilée and Rue de l’Amiral Hamelin, an ornate building dating from 1883.
- At No. 93 Rue Lauriston, a building which housed the Gestapo headquarters in France during the Occupation.
- Place du Trocadéro: a monument honouring the soldiers of the First World War, situated along the wall of Passy Cemetery. The monument, designed by the sculptor Paul Landowski (1875–1961), was unveiled in 1956.