From last week:
On my last visits to Paris, I’d carried lists and maps I’d made for myself detailing locations and styles of passages and galeries, les passages couverts, early to mid-19th century glass-roofed shopping arcades scattered around the Right Bank of of the city. Those that sounded most appealing to me were located in the 2nd and 9th arrondissements and this time I vowed to set aside as long as I needed for their exploration, after years of postponed anticipation.
The Paris passages represent a time of coinciding cultural dynamics – a rise in taste for luxury goods, available private capital to invest in new ventures and the era of the bourgeois flâneurs, strollers. Forty passages and galleries were built, of which 17 remain on the Right Bank, to give us a peek into the world they served in their heyday, prosperous crowds seeking to see and be seen, focussed venues for entertainment and commerce.
As you might imagine, after almost 200 years, the surviving passages have had a range of fates, from those occupied by downmarket neighborhood shops to flashy designer enclaves. I chose 6 that sounded most interesting to me, consistent with geographic economy, those most logically strung together for days of walking.
My exploration of the passages and galeries occupied much of 2 days. The first had begun with a walk from my neighborhood in Montmartre, south to Passages Verdeau, Jouffroy & Panoramas in the 9th arrondissement. Three days later I crossed Place Blanche and caught the 68 bus to Opera. The day’s route would have me circling Jardin du Palais Royal, first to Galerie Vivienne in the 2nd arrondissement, then south into the 1st arrondissement to Galerie Véro-Dodat, and finally northward, back into the 2nd to Passage Choiseul.
Galerie Vivienne
Galerie Véro-Dodat
Passage Choiseul
Guides to the passages & galeries:
Free from the Mairie de Paris to download, go to this page, then to a link for the pdf file “the covered passages in Paris (English version)”.
‘The Covered Passages of Paris’, published by Editions du Patrimoine, listed on Amazon as ‘Paris et ses passages couverts’ (version anglaise).
Next week, another from the list of postponed gratification,
Château de Vincennes.
Find all 7 chapters of PortMoresby’s anniversary visit to Paris, here.
And more contributions here.
Sadly, when it comes to shoes, my mind stops at back and brown…it’s probably why I will never be a rock star…
Another memorable walk down some of Paris’ great passageways! And now we know where Elton John buys his shoes.
OMG! Those shoes! They would be enough to chase me out and back to the pleasant tables in the passage, perhaps for something stronger than coffee. Especially if I were to encounter someone wearing them…
But how can you not love them. When I was reading your news item on visiting Canada, the shoes with the red hearts were right alongside. I could picture the shoes in the stirrups with those red uniforms. Just click on the mounties today while the shoes are there and visualize it. You’ll get a whole new perspective!
I guess now I have to say it, you’re a rock star to us, P. !