Underground & cool · Department-store experience · € · 9e · South Pigalle & Opéra
Galeries Lafayette dome & rooftop
Worth entering for the building rather than the goods. Jacques Gruber's 1912 stained-glass cupola hangs over the central hall; eight floors up, the open rooftop terrace gives a free 360-degree view from the Opéra to Sacré-Cœur and the Eiffel Tower.
Go straight up to the 8th-floor terrace for the view, then look down into the dome from the upper balconies; both free.
Getting there
- Chaussée d'Antin - La Fayette79130 m · 2 min walk
- AuberRER A220 m · 4 min walk
- Opéra378300 m · 6 min walk
Walks that pass nearby
- Belle Époque Parisstop 5 of 6 · 50 m
Galeries Lafayette dome
The 33-metre Art Nouveau stained-glass dome inside the Haussmann store. Designed by Ferdinand Chanut and Jacques Gruber in 1912. Free to walk in, ride the lift to the rooftop terrace for the view.
Enter at 40 Boulevard Haussmann, walk to the centre of the store and look up. Take the escalators (not lifts) to the top floor; the rooftop terrace exit is signposted, and on a clear day you see Sacré-Cœur, the Opéra, and the Eiffel Tower in one panorama.
- Paris-1900stop 6 of 6 · 50 m
Galeries Lafayette dome
1912. Slightly later than 1900 but in the same Belle Époque idiom — Ferdinand Chanut's neo-Byzantine glass dome, 33 m above the central atrium, with stained glass by Jacques Gruber. The balconies, ironwork, and dome are original.
Enter at 40 Boulevard Haussmann. Walk to the centre and look up. The first-floor balcony is the matching angle to most period photographs. The rooftop terrace (free, signposted) is a separate experience and worth the lift up.
- Paris Verticalstop 1 of 6 · 50 m
Galeries Lafayette terrace
Eighth-floor rooftop terrace, free. ~50 m above street level. Sacré-Cœur, the Opéra, and the Eiffel Tower are all visible from a single panorama. Most tourists don't know it's there.
Free — no ticket, no queue. Take the escalators (not lifts) to the top floor; rooftop signage takes you the last leg. Order a coffee at the small bar if you want to sit; otherwise just walk the perimeter.
- Golden Hour Parisstop 6 of 6 · 50 m
Galeries Lafayette rooftop
Eighth-floor terrace at the Haussmann department store. Free, almost always uncrowded. The whole central panorama: Sacré-Cœur, the Opéra Garnier rooftop, the Eiffel Tower, the Pantheon. Sunset light bouncing off the gold lettering of the Opéra is the underrated visual.
Free, no ticket, no queue. Take escalators (not lifts) to the eighth floor; rooftop signage takes you the last leg. Order something at the small bar and sit at one of the perimeter tables. Closes 8 pm winter / 9 pm summer — confirm closing before you leave.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Musée du Parfum FragonardFree perfume museum€ · 5 minA step from the Opéra Garnier, the Grasse house Fragonard fitted out a Napoléon III apartment as a perfume museum: copper stills, a wall of antique scent bottles, and a 'perfume organ' of labelled raw-material vials a nose would blend from.
- Kimpton St Honoré ParisDesign hotel€€€ · 7 minAn early-twentieth-century building a block behind the Palais Garnier, reworked by Charles Zana into something more Californian than the façade admits. The tenth-floor Sequoia bar runs a 360-degree view of the rooftops and the Eiffel Tower.
- Le Petit VendômeCounter sandwiches & bistro€ · 10 minA bar-counter sandwich on a properly crackly baguette — Cantal and ham, or garlic saucisson — a minute from Place Vendôme, for the price of a coffee in the cafés around it.
- Musée Gustave MoreauArtist house-museum€ · 10 minMoreau converted his own townhouse into a museum before he died in 1898, stacking the upper floors into two great glass-walled studios crammed with thousands of Symbolist works, joined by a coiling wrought-iron spiral staircase that is the most photographed object in the building.
- Sugo Pasta FrescaFresh pasta€€ · 10 minA tight Roman-leaning menu of six fresh pastas a few steps from the Bourse, four of them vegetarian. The cacio e pepe leans on 18-month Pecorino Romano; the house sugo is built on Sardinian tomatoes slow-cooked four hours.
- LazareStation brasserie€€ · 10 minÉric Frechon's brasserie built into Gare Saint-Lazare, packed from breakfast to last train, where the saucisse-purée and the quenelle de brochet are done with three-star muscle at canteen-adjacent prices.
The district · 9e
South Pigalle & Opéra — SoPiOpéra Garnier and the grands magasins up top; below, South Pigalle (SoPi) has become the city's best mid-range eating and drinking quarter, with Rue des Martyrs climbing through it.
Best for: Eaters and drinkers who want a real neighbourhood scene a step off-centre.
Everything we've verified in the 9e →How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of August 2026,cross-checked against 1 source:
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