Headlight
of the "Journées du Patrimoine" of September
2005, the Grand Palais re-open its doors for the public after five
years of total restoration. This re-birth follows twelve years of
closing due to advanced ageing. Last vestige of these
immense houses which pushed in the capital at the time of the World
Exhibitions of the beginning of the century, it was supposed to be a
luxury Palais of the Art in the shade of the close
Champs-Elysées. Its construction, discussed a long time although
supported by Rodin itself, will use for the first time in Paris the
reinforced concrete. But its principal innovation is its roof of glass,
a phenomenal transparent canopy which floods sun under the successive
exposures, Salon of the Car, Aeronautics, TSF, Nautique...
Nevertheless this Palais with wood foundation, imagined to last only a
time, ages prematurely. While being pressed on the archives of its
construction, the restorers thus renovated his canopy with its green
metal color of origin, run new foundations out of concrete, replaced
the old squares of the canopy by blades of modern technical double
glasses. The Grand Palais is ready again to accommodate the
prestigious exposures of Paris.
