Curated Itinerary
Art Nouveau in Paris: A Walk from the Opéra to the Rue de Rivoli
Five addresses around the Opéra and the rue de Rivoli: the Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, the Café de la Paix, Maxim’s and Angelina.
Take this route into Google Maps
From Galeries Lafayette Haussmann to Angelina, Paris: the 1903 tea house on the rue de Rivoli, in the order we curated them.
➤ Turn on the navigator in Google MapsIt opens in the Google Maps app with every stop already loaded, in the order we put them in. From there the route is yours: pick how you travel — on foot, by bike, by public transport or by car — change where you start and where you end, drag the stops into a different order, and add places of your own along the way.
Paris Art Nouveau is mostly interiors and shopfronts, and the department stores are where it went public. Five addresses within a kilometre of each other, between the Opéra and the rue de Rivoli.
What you see
The walk begins with the two department stores on boulevard Haussmann: the Galeries Lafayette, under a neo-Byzantine glass dome finished in 1912, and Printemps, rebuilt by Paul Sédille in 1883 and crowned by its 1923 stained-glass cupola. On the corner of the Opéra, the Café de la Paix has served the Grand-Hôtel since 1862.
Then Maxim’s on rue Royale, given its Art Nouveau interior in 1899 for the Exposition of 1900, and Angelina on rue de Rivoli, the tea house opened in 1903 by the confectioner Antoine Rumpelmayer.
How to do it
On foot, five stops, 2.6 kilometres measured on the streets, about two and a half hours, with time for tea at Angelina.
When to go
Any day. The department stores are busiest on Saturday afternoons.
Read the article
The magazine has a longer piece on this walk, with a photograph of each building and the history behind it: Art Nouveau in Paris, from the Opéra to the rue de Rivoli.
Step by step
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann
Belle Époque department store on Boulevard Haussmann, crowned by a neo-Byzantine glass-and-steel dome finished in 1912.
Printemps Haussmann
Paris grand magasin rebuilt by Paul Sédille in 1883, famous for its 1923 stained-glass cupola; a listed monument.
Café de la Paix, Paris
Opened in 1862 to serve the Grand-Hôtel, the Café de la Paix faces the Palais Garnier from the Place de l'Opéra. Its Napoleon III interior has been a monument historique since 1975.
Maxim’s, Paris
The dining room where the Belle Époque saw itself in the mirror — and liked what it saw.
Angelina, Paris: the 1903 tea house on the rue de Rivoli
Founded in 1903 by the Austrian confectioner Antoine Rumpelmayer, Angelina on the rue de Rivoli is the Paris tea house of the hot chocolate "l'Africain" and the Mont-Blanc.
Download for tour navigation
PDF is the stop list with GPS, to print or keep on the phone. GPX for Garmin / Komoot / OsmAnd. KML for Google Earth and Maps.
Walk it with the navigator on
It opens in the Google Maps app with every stop already loaded, in the order we put them in. From there the route is yours: pick how you travel — on foot, by bike, by public transport or by car — change where you start and where you end, drag the stops into a different order, and add places of your own along the way.
To keep the route in the app instead of opening it once, download the KML above and import it into Google My Maps — Create a new map, then Import: the route then sits among your own maps in Google Maps, with the stops and our notes attached to each one.