On previous 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. 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 some serious 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 glimpse into the world they served in their heyday, prosperous crowds seeking to see and be seen in fashionable venues for entertainment and commerce.
As you might imagine, after 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.
Passages Verdeau, Jouffroy and Panoramas were the obvious choices to begin, in a straight line on my walk downhill from home in the 18th arrondissement. Proceeding south from Place Blanche, I stopped first at the Musée de la Vie Romantique, another that had languished for years on my list. After an excellent croque-monsieur in their small cafe, I continued on, passing by the Musée Gustave Moreau, disappointed to find it closed for renovation. Ah, well, onward, then, to the passages!
Passage Verdeau
Passage Panoramas
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, circling the Jardin du Palais Royal
on the hunt for another passage and 2 galeries.
Find all 7 chapters of PortMoresby’s anniversary visit to Paris, here.
And more contributions here.
Thanks for the walk-through!
Our first experience with them was in the mid-90s, when we spent a happy (very drizzly) afternoon sitting at a small cafe in the Passage Vivienne, watching all the (damp) people taking their time looking around before facing the weather again.
We’ve also enjoyed a look at some of the funkier ones opening to Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin…they can seem like an excursion to a village on another continent.
I’m looking forward to it. Not only was it lovely, it felt slightly sinful to have nothing to do but drink coffee and watch, while everyone else had somewhere to go, somewhere to be. Wrong country, but still…Dolce far niente!
TravelingCanuck, thanks. Be sure to download the free guide offered by the Mairie (linked above). It really is good, many more choices than I included here.
Wonderful! Can’t think of anything I’d rather do than spend a few yours at one of those cafes on a cold and rainy day.
Then you’ll get a moment of deja vu next week, PHeymont, as Galerie Vivienne is included in next week’s walk.
KInd of like being retired, lovely & sinful, indeed.
Fantastic post. These look amazing. We are heading to France in a week and will spent 4 days in Paris. We will revisit some of the more obvious sites but also want to just explore the city. A tour of the various covered passages most certainly will be on the agenda. Thanks for the great info.
Wonderful discoveries and photos! I especially love the people you captured. Really puts me there!
I will. Thanks again.
Not in passages, but some beautiful Paris storefronts, here.