Les Grands Boulevards: the Opéra and the department stores
The grand staircase, two glass-domed stores, and a covered passage to finish. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Opéra Garnier
Charles Garnier's wedding cake of a building. The façade alone earns a slow circle, but pay the small fee and go in for the grand staircase — marble, gilt, and a ceiling by Chagall hiding upstairs. Closed to visitors on matinée days, so check.

2. Galeries Lafayette
Forget the shopping; ride up for the *coupole*, the 1912 stained-glass dome over the central hall. Then the free rooftop terrace, where the Opéra and the whole grey-zinc skyline lay themselves out for nothing.

3. Printemps
The other grand magasin, a few doors west, with its own Art Nouveau dome and its own rooftop view. If Lafayette's terrace is mobbed, this is the quieter twin — the brasserie under the cupola is the place to sit.

4. Boulevard des Italiens
Back down to the boulevard the 19th century built for strolling. The café terraces still face the pavement traffic as they always did; take one, order a drink, watch the street do its old job.

5. Passage Jouffroy
Duck off the boulevard into the glass-roofed arcade of 1846 — bookshops, a cane-and-walking-stick specialist, the waxworks entrance halfway down. The light through the glass roof is the whole point.

6. Passage Verdeau
Cross the road and Jouffroy continues as Verdeau, quieter, lined with old prints and second-hand cameras. It spills you out a short walk from the métro, dry the whole way if it's raining.

Les Grands Boulevards: the Opéra and the department stores