On the corner where the Boulevard des Capucines meets the Place de l’Opéra, the café that opened with the Grand-Hôtel in 1862 still faces Garnier’s opera house across the square it was built to serve.
At a glance
The Café de la Paix opened on 30 June 1862 to serve the Grand-Hôtel de la Paix, and both were designed by the same architect, Alfred Armand, in the Napoleon III style. It stands on the northwest corner of the intersection of the Boulevard des Capucines and the Place de l’Opéra, in the 9th arrondissement — a position that made it, from the moment the Palais Garnier opened across the square, the café of the Paris opera.
Key facts
- Opened: 30 June 1862, with the Grand-Hôtel
- Architect: Alfred Armand, in the Napoleon III style
- Where: corner of Boulevard des Capucines and Place de l’Opéra, 9th arrondissement, Paris
- Protection: the café’s interior, together with parts of the hotel that houses it, was declared a monument historique on 22 August 1975
History
The café belongs to the Second Empire remaking of Paris: a grand hotel for the new boulevards, with a café at its most visible corner. Its proximity to the opera attracted the regulars who made its name — Jules Massenet, Émile Zola, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Guy de Maupassant among the earlier ones, with Oscar Wilde, Edward VII, Sergei Diaghilev and Marlene Dietrich counted among its patrons across the Belle Époque and after. In 1975 the French state placed the interior under monument historique protection, fixing in law what a century of custom had already established.
What you see
A Napoleon III interior of gilt, mirrors and painted ceilings, and one of the best-placed terraces in Paris: the Palais Garnier fills the view across the Place de l’Opéra. The café operates today within the hotel on the same corner where it opened in 1862.
Sources
- Café de la Paix — Wikipedia (EN), read 26 August 2026
- Café de la Paix — official site
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