Paris Walks is a company in Paris that does walking tours in English. They have a special arrangement with the school's parent association and every month we get invited to a tour of a specially designated area of Paris. We were able to join November's walk around Les Halles on a beautiful day and we got to see some interesting places that are otherwise easy to miss.
Les Halles is nowadays known for the Forum des Halles and the underground shopping mall and train station, but for years—centuries—it was the traditional central market of Paris.
Due to severe circulation and hygiene problems, in the 1850s the entire neighborhood was demolished and a new market was built. The black and white picture below, "Les Halles de Baltard" (© Roger Henrard, 1955), shows the ten massive iron and glass Baltard pavilions (halls)—the first buildings in France to display their metalwork—for which Les Halles became known for. This was the Les Halles that's brilliantly described in Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris.
Due to severe circulation and hygiene problems, in the 1850s the entire neighborhood was demolished and a new market was built. The black and white picture below, "Les Halles de Baltard" (© Roger Henrard, 1955), shows the ten massive iron and glass Baltard pavilions (halls)—the first buildings in France to display their metalwork—for which Les Halles became known for. This was the Les Halles that's brilliantly described in Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris.
In 1971 the market was relocated to the suburbs and subsequently the pavilions were torn down, giving way to the modern Forum des Halles, which was so ugly it was recently demolished and rebuilt.
The tour started with a walk down Rue Etienne Marcel to see the Tour Jean Sans Peur, a little tower built in 1409 by John the Fearless, the Duke of Burgundy, as an extension of the mansion (which is no longer there) and where he installed his bedroom. Contrary to his name, he was a bit paranoid.
We then went back down the narrow Rue Tiquetonne, where at #10 still remains the L'Arbre à Liège (the Cork Tree) sign, one of the few preserved medieval store signs.
We crossed Rue Saint Denis and looking south got a glimpse of the spires of the medieval church of Saint Leu and Saint Gilles. Saint Denis is one of the oldest streets in Paris; its route was laid out in the 1st century by the Romans. Today it's known for its sex shops and sex workers.
We crossed Rue Saint Denis and looking south got a glimpse of the spires of the medieval church of Saint Leu and Saint Gilles. Saint Denis is one of the oldest streets in Paris; its route was laid out in the 1st century by the Romans. Today it's known for its sex shops and sex workers.
We took the Passage du Bourg l’Abbé, and then the Passage du Grand Cerf, a pretty glass-roofed arcade that was built in the 1820s. Today these passages are home to small shops and ateliers, many of them small designers selling original jewelry or housewares, but they're not what they used to be.
From there we walked down Rue Greneta till we hit Rue Montorgueil. On the corner is Au Rocher de Cancale, founded in 1804 and very famous in the 19th century for its oysters and frequented by Honoré de Balzac. Indeed, this is where some of the characters of Balzac’s The Human Comedy paraded.
We then strolled down rue Montorgueil, a fashionable pedestrian street with old-fashioned bistrots that used to serve onion soup to the market employees and now is filled with upscale vendors, such as Stohrer, which opened in 1730 and is Paris' oldest (and possibly priciest) patisserie. Allegedly, Nicolas Stohrer, the original owner, invented the dessert Rum Baba (or Baba au Rhum), which you find on many menus in Paris. The shop is beautiful, with elaborate wall and crown mouldings, frescoes, and a chandelier in the interior, and is now classified as a historical site, but it's the pastries inside that are worth the trip.
Other stores on the street sell traditional foods, fish, produce, cooking equipment, and so on.
Other stores on the street sell traditional foods, fish, produce, cooking equipment, and so on.
We ended up in beautiful Saint Eustache church, which was adjacent to the original market and is the only building from that era that remains. The church is relatively short in length, which may be why it seems so tall inside. It was built between 1532 and 1640 and because of its proximity to the Louvre and Tuileries palaces was where many kings and notables worshipped, had their funeral, or were buried. Louis XIV's first communion was in St. Eustache. And the organ, with 8000 pipes, is supposed to be the largest in France.
Impossible to miss are the tomb of Colbert, Louis XIV's famous Minister of Finances, which is a work of art, and "The departure of the fruit and vegetable market from the heart of Paris," a cartoon-like artwork done by Raymond Mason to mark the day the merchants left Les Halles.
