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 Jouffroy
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.
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