The pretty 124-year-old attraction that looks like something from a Disney film – and it’s reopening this summer
A PRETTY 124-year-old attraction that looks like something from a Disney film is reopening this summer.
The striking spot will give visitors a sneak preview inside ahead of the Summer Olympics before its full launch next year.
The Grand Palais is one of Paris’s most important exhibition spaces, but has been closed three for years to undergo renovations.
From July 26 to August 11, the building will open its doors to members of the publicas it is set to host the 2024 Summer Olympic tournaments in both fencing and taekwondo.
The lucky few with tickets to these events will get to check out the striking renovations that transformed the nave of the Grand Palais.
The space will open again in October of this year to host Art Basel Paris before closing once more to finalize its last series of renovations.
The structure is a sign to behold and combines steel, stone, and glass to create a masterpiece.
It is a relic of early 20th-century innovations and boasts a massive glass dome ceiling.
With 145,313 square feet of space, the ceiling is the largest of its kind in Europe, making it a must-see in Paris.
The Grand Palais closed in March 2021, largely to improve the building’s accessibility, restore its original exterior statuary, and renovate portions of the space that had been blocked off for decades.
The urban planning, architecture, and interior design studio Chatillon Architectes has performed the mammoth task of renovating the Grand Palais over the past three years.
The process made painstakingly slow due to the firm’s aim to preserve the integrity of the original design.
It is also bringing the space into the future with updates that improve accessibility and fire safety standards.
François Chatillon, the founder of Chatillon Architectes, told The Art Newspaper of the lengthy process to choose the new stone floor colour.
He said it was more than three years before the coral-hued thermo-concrete was decided upon and needed multiple conversations with France’s minister of culture.
Detailing the logistics behind the reopening Chatillon said: “Everyone is familiar with the Grand Palais . . . yet it has many extraordinary spaces that are unknown, hidden for decades under successive modification.”
The exhibition space is expected to open permanently in 2025.
According to the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais, which oversees the Grand Palais operations, the space will be open to the general public in 2025.
It comes as Brits were urged to visit a popular, free European attraction before it closes down for five years.
The cultural hub, which is set to undergo a major expansion, can be reached by a two-hour train journey from the UK.
Situated in the centre of Paris, the Centre Pompidou attracts millions of guests every year from across the globe.
A haven for lovers of the arts, it houses the largest museum of modern art in Europe as well as a huge public library containing over 400,000 books and documents.
Built in the 1970s, the centre was named for former French President Georges Pompidou, who had a well-known passion for modern art and poetry.
It has also hosted a number of noteworthy exhibitions of fine art, including a collection of work by master painter Matisse in 2020 and renowned British artist David Hockney in 1998.