Opera Tickets at the Palais de Granier

Here is a link to the calendar https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/ticketing/calendar
Once you pick a date you will be presented with a seating chart to select seats

Thanks so much. The site appears to be down at the moment.

First, it called the Opéra Garnier (more specifically the Palais Garnier). Secondly, my understanding is that more operas in Paris are performed at the Opéra Bastille. There are many more ballet performances at the Opéra Garnier—which is definitely on my Paris bucket list.

Found the site and there is an opera at the Palias Garnier in May, and tickets will go up for sale for our date in November.
Thanks!

For the best-value seats, try to be online a few minutes before 12PM French time on the day they go on sale!

Bear in mind that at the Palais Garnier, many seats offer poor visibility, including seats that are not the cheapest. In particular, second rows in the side "loges" or "baignoires" are especially poor value IMO.
And if you are tall and/or big, the Amphithéâtre, while offering good visibility (from a bit far high up), is absolute torture.
If you can afford Balcony or Parterre seats, you will not have any such trouble, but they cost around €200/each.

I'm glad Balso brought this up. This is an old-fashion opera house, à l'italienne, in other words horsehoe shaped so the most important people in the audience could be seen by everyone, while the majority of the rest of the audience could see only part of the stage. If you want to enjoy an opera, you are better off at the Bastille Opera House but take a tour of the Garnier. I saw the half of the stage or just a glimpse of the stage too many times in my youth, including only half of Marcel Marceau's act. It was so disappointing.
Once before the internet, I stood in line for three hours the day tickets went on sale to get first row center seats in the third balcony in the Garnier for a solo ballet performance.

We have an old italian-style opera house, a miniature of the Garnier, and a modern opera house where I live. I avoid the beautiful, old one if I want to enjoy the performance.

You need to register and create an account with the Paris Opera which you can do now. You have to have that to buy tickets and in that moment time is of the essence. Be poised on your computer to complete the dial in the moment tickets are released. The cheaper seats are only sold at the box office I believe, but the mid range seats are the first to go on line. The tickets you are offered will show the sight line and you can reject those and ask for others (you choose the section not the individual seat)

The Garnier is gorgeous but a terrible opera house with poor technical stage and terrible seats and sightlines. For this reason, opera is performed at the wonderful Bastille House. But there are a few operas performed at the Garnier each year. Mostly it is used for dance.

This is all great information - Thanks so much everyone! Or, should I say Merci Beaucoup!

The cheaper seats are only sold at the box office I believe, but the mid range seats are the first to go on line. The tickets you are offered will show the sight line and you can reject those and ask for others (you choose the section not the individual seat)

They recently changed the system. All tickets that have not been previously booked by subscription holders are now sold online, and you can pick your exact seat from the chart. You will have a picture of the sightlines - usually not exactly from the seat in question, but close enough to give an illustration!

To give you an idea, I suggest you create an account, look at operas that are currently available for booking at Garnier (Peter Grimes for example), and make dummy seat selections to see the views!

And have a look at the Opéra Comique too (Salle Favart). Not as famous, but almost as stunning, and cheaper.

Great advice Balso -- last times we booked on line looking for cheap seats, all of the lowest price ones were blocked out from the beginning. Interesting that that has changed. My husband has very poor vision so we now need to buy expensive seats for him to see anything; those are easier to get after the first day of sales, but they are really expensive. Moderately priced seats sell out fast; I have been on line at the moment the office opens and still been in a long queue and when my turn comes, often the seats I hoped to get were gone and I had to go for more expensive seats.

The sumptuous Garnier lobbies can sometimes be visited on your own. The hulking Bastille offers a guided tour of its intricate backstage machinery, including the mobile stages on rollers and even elevators. That's more interesting than the bleak modernist design of the auditorium itself, which of course is no measure of visual and sound quality. The tour schedule is intermittent so please check ahead.
https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/visits/opera-bastille