Paris Las Vegas Hotel: Exterior Architecture Features (Hotel de Ville, Montgolfier Balloon, Paris Opera House and Louvre Museum)

View of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel from the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel
tower design is based on the Hotel de Ville in Paris.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler)

The actual Hotel de Ville is Paris's Neo-Renaissance city hall built in
1873. The building houses the offices of the Mayor and city council
of Paris. (photo: Mairie de Paris/Henri Garat)

Opened in September 1999 among a number of theme hotels in Sin City and built at a cost of $760 million, the Paris Las Vegas captures the ambiance of the City of Light in the most grandest of ways. Sitting on 24 acres, the hotel rises 34 stories with 2,916 rooms including 295 suites in a four-wing tower fashioned after the Hotel de Ville in Paris, France.

The replica of a Montgolfier balloon heralds the Paris Las Vegas Hotel
on the Las Vegas Strip.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler)

A model of a Montgolfier Brothers balloon at the National Air and Space
Museum in Washington, DC.
(photo: The Engineers of Our Ingenuity)

Welcoming hotel guest who enter from Las Vegas Boulevard is the Paris Las Vegas Hotel sign in the shape of a Montgolfier balloon. The Montgolfier brothers (Joseph-Michael, 1740-1810, and Jacques-Etienne, 1745-1799), inventors of the montgolfiere-style hot air balloon, launched the first manned balloon into the sky. Almost two-hundred years later, their contraption is the symbol of the Paris Las Vegas.

Side face of the Paris Opera House at Paris Las Vegas Hotel. On the left
is an addition built during a 2010 renovation.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler)

Detail of the Paris Opera House replica in Las Vegas.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler)

A 2002 photo shows the original version of the Paris Opera House
before a renovated that drastically changed this corner of the Paris
Las Vegas Hotel.
(photo: grisel.net)

Side face of the actual Paris Opera House.
(photo: Buster&Bubby/flickr)

Facade of real Paris Opera House.
(photo: jakebloke/flickr)

One of the most beautiful aspects of Paris Las Vegas, a recreation of the facade of Palais Garner otherwise better known as the Paris Opera House, was partially bulldozed by a 2010 renovation that installed a Sugar Factory restaurant and retail shop. Located on the right side of the hotel's Eiffel Tower is a version of a the Opera House that copies the front and side faces of the building.

The Palais Garnier, also know as the Opera Garnier, was completed in 1875. One of the most famous opera houses in the world, the elegant building seats 1,979 patrons. The Paris Las Vegas version houses the previously mentioned Sugar Factory and Chateau nightclub.

It's probably ironic that Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical 'The Phantom of the Opera' opened on the strip as 'Phantom The Las Vegas Spectacular' not at the Paris Las Vegas but at the Venetian Las Vegas Hotel. The show is set in the famous Paris Opera House.

Facade of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel includes a corner replicating
the Louvre Museum.
(photo: TheHopefulTraveler)

The Richelieu Wing of the real Louvre Museum in Paris.
(photo: misschelle/flickr)

Less obvious to visitors of the Paris Las Vegas is a replica of the Louvre Museum. Located to the left of the hotel's Eiffel Tower, this portion of the property houses a location of the French bistro Mon Ami Gabi. This portion is meant to represent a wing of the famous museum.

Originally a fortress built in the 12th century, the building was extended several to form the Louvre Palace. The building officially opened as a museum in 1793. Today it houses nearly 35,000 objects over 652,300 square feet. Among the famous works of art housed in the museum is Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the ancient greek status Venus de Milo.

The Paris Las Vegas Hotel's most famous features, replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, will be covered in separate upcoming posts.