The Royal Opera (L'Opera Royal), Versailles

Impressive that Louie XIV built an opera house within his palace just for himself. Not many people's houses are big enough to just "add" an opera house to your humble abode. This opera house spared no expenses to depict opulence and the enjoyment of opera. I noticed that the stage was as deep as the audience seating, which is not the case in normal theaters. In regular theaters, you want to maximize the audience seating so you can sell more tickets, and the actual stage is narrow and "just for show". Here in the Palace of Versailles, there are no ticket quotas or pressure to fill the seats, so they built a stage as long and deep as the other half of audience seating, giving them the illusion that they are looking into long corridors of the palace.

Amazingly picturesque place. I could have spent hours in there, and having just found out that shows are run at the Opera House in Versailles, it makes me want to plan a trip around watching something in that beautiful hall. Absolutely breathtaking.