PARIS BESt
OF PARIS
Perrotin moved to Rue LouiseWeiss, the 13th Arrondissement became le “it” neighborhood. The once sleepy First Arrondissement, where my husband and I moved back in 1997, was turned into a destination when the trendsetting store Colette opened on Rue St.-Honoré. Sometimes, I pine for our old diner with its cracked-leather banquettes, for a time when I could slip out to buy fresh croissants in the mornings with just my coat on over my PJ’s.
Paris has been my home for the past 16 years. My first job here, in 1989, was working for Karl Lagerfeld in the Chanel design studio. Next came W magazine, and then Harper’s Bazaar. Consequently, I’m always being called upon for advice—where to go, where to eat, what to do. Delighted as I am to help, such questions are a lot to take on, because Paris is a different place for everyone. For some, Paris is about throwing all caloric caution to the wind. For others, Paris is where you can dress up in Lanvin or Balenciaga, layer on the chicest accessories, and don the highest of Christian Louboutin heels. For still others, Paris is about sightseeing and checking out the latest exhibitions. One key to understanding the capital is knowing that its denizens take their politics as seriously as they do the quality of their daily tartine (buttered baguette) and tasse de café. The 2007 presidential elections, for example, have already been seized on by le tout Paris. The big buzz is the rivalry between Dominique de Villepin, the dev-
astatingly good-looking conservative prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the diminutive but charismatic interior minister. The potential candidates are wildly different, both more than 20 years younger than the current president, Jacques Chirac, and are the subject of passionate arguments. They’re just part of the general excitement and optimism of Paris these days. Suddenly, the City of Light is smoldering again. After years of being mocked for being too traditional and taking its civic pride too seriously, Paris—with its unique mix of the old and the new—is proving to be the perfect antidote to globalization. Where else could you find popular boutiques specializing in ribbons, walking canes, dollhouse furniture, and taxidermy? On the other hand, any of Paris’s 20 arrondissements (really a cluster of little villages) can dramatically metamorphose from one year to the next. For instance, when the Canal St.-Martin area became the new place to live, the 10th was transformed. When renowned art galleries such as Emmanuel Page 2
However, adapting is essential to life in Paris. As is being in the know. So, I’ve dug deep into my little black book and badgered all my stylish Parisian friends for this exhaustive guide to a town of a thousand faces. Just remember: Come with an open heart, don’t forget to say “Bonjour” when you enter a shop or to hold the door when exiting the Métro. That, and the following recommendations, should put you on the right track.
Eiffel Tower The world is filled with buildings and monuments named after monarchs, generals and businessmen, but it’s rare to find great landmarks that credit the architects or engineers who actually built them. The giant tower that greeted visitors to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889 was planned to be merely a temporary construction. Perhaps that’s why it was excused from bearing the name of some national symbol or lofty ideal, and instead commemorates the genius of Gustave Eiffel.
‘Gustave Eiffel knew how to master the most advanced technology of the time,’ says Stéphane Dieu, who looks after the tower’s heritage. ‘For a start, the foundations of the tower’s four pillars had to be built in damp soil close to the river. Above all, it was his faith and love of science that guided him – you can see that from the frieze around the first floor, which gives the names of 72 French scientists.’
timed ticket to skip long ticket office queues (tour-eiffel.fr). You’ll need to print it out or show it on a smartphone screen.
Notre-Dame
The queue to get inside NotreDame passes by a bronze marker in the cobblestones, denoting ‘point zéro’ – the spot from which all French road distances are measured. As an official centre point, this makes a certain amount of sense. NotreDame is on an island, washed The commercial success of a by the strong current of the 300-metre observation tower Seine, that was one of earliwas only possible of course thanks to the invention of the elevator. Four sets of diagonal lifts climb the tower’s splayed feet to the mid-levels, through a lattice of girders that join in crosses and starbursts. The second journey is a vertical one, up the centre of the structure. As the cabin glides ever higher, the four edges of the est parts of Paris to be settled tower close in around it. Just in Roman times – convenientbefore it seems like the iron is ly neutral ground in the city’s about to run out, the lift stops, Left Bank-Right Bank divide. and opens its doors. Eiffel’s supreme achievement was meant to be dismantled by 1909. It was only saved on his insistence that it could serve as a testing ground for scientific experiments and later as a radio transmitter. Bridges and buildings by Eiffel survive from Hungary to Bolivia. He even designed the internal framework for the Statue of Liberty. But if it hadn’t been for Eiffel’s determination, the tower that bears his name might be remembered today only from a few yellowing postcards.
A lot of what appears medieval is really neo-medieval. The French Revolution took an anti-clerical turn, and the cathedral suffered for it. Most of its bells were melted down and in 1793 the 28 royal statues on the main façade were vandalised, their heads hacked off – the crowd had allegedly mistaken these Biblical rulers for kings of France. By 1831, when Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the cathedral had become a dilapidated embarrassment.
The architect Eugène ViolletTop tip: if you know your travel le-Duc was brought in to bring dates two or three months in Notre-Dame back to glory in advance, it’s worth booking a the 1840s. As with many of Page 3
his restoration projects however, he took some creative liberties along the way. These include Notre-Dame’s famous grotesques, or chimeras – not properly gargoyles, as they serve as decoration rather than waterspouts. A dimpled, welltrodden spiral staircase leads to the Galerie des Chimères. A herd of grotesques perch on this balcony walkway between the west towers – sinewy, bearded devils, but also a pelican and even an elephant. They weren’t on the original blueprints, but then again Notre-Dame never got the spires that were meant to top its twin square towers. Perhaps a great cathedral is always a work in progress. Top tip: on the façade’s lefthand portal, look out for the statue of St Denis. The patron saint of France is said to have walked a few miles after being decapitated, carrying his head in his arms.
Louvre The largest painting on display at the Louvre is The Wedding Feast at Cana, painted by Paolo Veronese in 1563. It covers a whole wall of the Salle des États, and in any other room it would be the focus of attention. On the wall immediately facing it however is a modest-sized portrait in smoky colours of a woman smiling enigmatically. Thanks to the Mona Lisa, known in France as La Joconde, the figures in Veronese’s masterpiece spend most of their time looking out onto a throng of people with their backs turned. The world’s most visited museum has plenty of similar treasures hiding in plain sight, beginning with the
earliest work on display – a 9000-year old human figure in ghostly white plaster from Ain Ghazal in Jordan. Tutankhamun of Egypt lived closer in time to us than to the people who made this statue – a whisper from a nameless past. ‘We almost don’t want to say which rooms are less visited than they should be – we would like to keep them quiet!’ says Daniel Soulié, who has written several books on the Louvre. ‘The whole Richelieu wing and the second floor, the galleries of French sculpture and objets d’art, the paintings of the Northern European schools – these are fabulous collections which don’t get so many visitors.’ Top tip: the museum offers a variety of themed, self-guided trails, including palace history, horse-riding, The Da Vinci Code
tury, the medieval cemeteries could not keep up with the growth of the city. Old graves were dug up and bones tossed into attic-like charnel houses to make room for more burials. Paris already possessed a network of tunnels, built from Roman times onwards to quarry high-quality limestone for buildings such as NotreDame. From 1786, the old city-centre cemeteries were gradually emptied, and their contents brought to the mineshafts in a nightly stream of hearses accompanied by the chanting of priests. The last of the transfers to the catacombs was made in 1860, by which time vast suburban cemeteries such as Père Lachaise had relieved the burden on the city. The catacombs begin with a doorway over which is writ-
ter and dark monotony’ of the catacombs, and to put the living into a philosophical frame of mind. The embankments of bones on either side of the passageways have signs stating the original cemeteries and dates of reburial. Even here the human urge to be decorative expresses itself in patterns of skulls and femurs. The first bones had been thrown in haphazardly, in a rationalist 18th century that just wanted these unsavoury remains put somewhere safely out of sight. But when burials resumed after a hiatus caused by the turmoil of the French Revolution, Romanticism had become the zeitgeist, and the catacombs were refashioned into a place where visitors could enjoy a kind of dignified melancholy. Top tip: queues to get in can be long (sometimes over an hour), so try to arrive before the catacombs open at 10am. Dress for a temperature of around 14°C, with a few drips of water from the ceiling.
Napoleon’s Triumphal Arch
and artworks depicting love through the ages (louvre.fr).
Catacombs The Paris catacombs were a quick solution to a mounting problem. By the late 18th cen-
ten: ‘Arrête! C’est içi l’empire de la mort’ (‘Stop! Here is the empire of death’). This is the first of many cheery inscriptions that were designed, in the words of the quarries’ overseer Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, to ‘break the sinisPage 4
The arch was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his victories, but he was ousted before the arch was completed. In fact, it wasn’t completed until 1836 during the reign of Louis-Philippe. The Arc de Triomphe is engraved with names of generals who commanded French troops during Napoleon’s regime.
Design The design of the arch by Jean Chalgrin is based on the Arch of Titus in Rome. The Arc
de Triomphe is much higher The top of the arch features a (50m versus 15m), but it has viewing platform from where exactly the same proportions. you have great views of La Defense, the Champs-Elysées and The triumphal arch is adorned the Sacré-Coeur. Make sure you with many reliefs, most of them take one of the underpasses to commemorating the emperor’s the arch, it is too dangerous to battles. Among them are the try and cross the street. There battle of Aboukir, Napoleon’s is no elevator in the arch, so be victory over the Turkish and the prepared to walk up 234 steps.
Battle of Austerliz, where Napoleon defeated the Austrians. The best known relief is the Departure of the Volunteers in 1792, also known as the Marseillaise. At the top of the arch are thirty shields, each of them bears the name of one of Napoleon’s successful battles. Below the arch is the Grave of the Unknown Soldiers, honoring the many who died during the First World War.
Place Charles de Gaulle The arch is located at the end of the Champs-Elysées, in the middle of the Place Charles de Gaulle, a large circular square from which no less than 12 streets emanate. The streets are named after French military leaders. Observation
deck
Sacré-Coeur was built on top of the hill, Montmartre was a small village, inhabited by a mostly farming community.
The
Basilica
Project
The project to build the SacréCoeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) was initiated by a group of influential people. Their reasons to build this monument was two-fold: Statue King Louis IX on the Sacre Coeur in Paris King Louis IX they had pledged to build a church if Paris escaped unscathed from the war with the Prussians and they saw the defeat of the French at the hands of the Prussian army in 1870 as a moral condemnation of the sins of Paris. The project was authorized by the National Assembly in 1873, and a competition was Sacré-Coeur organized. The goal was to build an imposing basilica The Sacré-Coeur Basilica is one true to Christian traditions. of Paris’s major tourist draws. The majestic building is locatThe Building ed on top of the Montmartre hill. The winner of the competition was Paul Abadie, who had already restored two cathedrals in France. He designed an immense basilica in a RomanByzantyne style. This architectural style stands in sharp contrast with other contemporary buildings in France, The SacréCoeur seen from the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris Montmartre View from the Above all, Montmartre, an area Parc des Buttes-Chaumont on a hill in the 18th arrondisse- which were mostly built ment, north of downtown Paris, in a Romanesque style. is known for its many artists who have been omnipresent since Construction of the Basilica 1880. The name Montmartre is started in 1876 with Abadie as said to be derived from either the lead architect. When Paul Mount of Martyrs or from Mount Abadie died in 1884, he was of Mars. Until 1873, when the succeeded by Lucien Magne, Page 5
tect Ieoh Ming Pei to modernize the Louvre and integrate the different wings. Pei suggested excavating the Cour Napoléon - a central courtyard - and create a subterranean entrance hall - the Hall Napoléon - with access to the three different wings and space for shops, restaurants and other amenities. This would solve the accessibility problem of the Louvre Museum.
The Pyramid who added an 83 meter (272 landmark in its own right. Geometric Shape ft) tall clock tower. The Savoyarde clock installed here Louvre Museum ExFountain at the Louis one of the world’s largest. vre Pyramid in Paris pansion Pyramid Fountain Due to its location on the MontFor the entrance to the submartre hill, the basilica towers The Louvre Pyramid was built terranean level, Pei wanted over the city; its highest point as part of a project known as to avoid it looking like a mere is even higher than the top of the ‘Grand Louvre’, first pro- subway station and he needthe Eiffel Tower. Thanks to this posed in 1981 by the French ed the right kind of building to François Mitterprominent location the Sacré- president draw visitors to the museum’s Coeur Basilica is one of the rand, to expand and mod- entrance. A solid concrete most Sacré-Coeur, Parisno- ernize the Louvre Museum. structure - like his East Buildticeable landmarks in Paris. In the 1970s the centuries-old ing of the National Gallery of Louvre Palace struggled to Art in Washington DC - was White Stones cope with the rising number of out of the question, since this visitors. The entrances were too would clash with the classical The Sacré-Coeur Basilica has small, each wing had a different facades of the Louvre palace. managed to keep its beam- entrance and the layout was so ing white color even in the confusing that visitors struggled After studying the works of polluted air of a big city like to find the entrance or the exit. André Le Nôtre - France’s Paris. This can be attributed great landscape designer to the Château-Landon stones Mitterrand suggested to ex- - who strictly followed geowhich were used for the con- pand the museum by relocat- metric patterns, Pei came up struction of the Sacré-Coeur. ing the Ministry of Finance with the shape of a pyramid, When it rains, the stones react - which had occupied the which would form a beacon to the water and secrete cal- Richelieu wing of the Lou- at the center of the courtyard. cite, which acts like a bleacher. vre since 1873 - to the Bercy He opted for a glass cladding neighborhood. Finally the Lou- since this would be the least inLouvre Pyramid vre Museum could occupy trusive and it would also allow the whole U-shaped building. light to enter the foyer below. The Louvre Pyramid was built in the 1980s as the main en- Subterranean entrance A Hostile Reception trance to the Louvre Museum. The modern glass structure, Miterrand rejected the idea of a As soon as word leaked that a which forms a nice contrast competition for the Grand Lou- modern pyramid would be built with the historic facades of vre project, and appointed the at the heart of the Louvre, most the Louvre, has become a Chinese-born American archi- critics were quick to attack the Page 6
audacious design. The plans also caused an outcry with Parisians, who had become weary of modern projects after the construction of the Montparnasse Tower and the bland towers of La Défense. Polls indicated a large majority of the French citizens opposed the structure. But soon after the official inauguration of the pyramid in March 1989, the opposition quickly subsided and the Louvre Pyramid became one of Paris’s most beloved modern landmarks.
The
Inverted
Pyramid
In 1993 the underground area expanded with the opening of a modern shopping mall, the Carrousel du Louvre. It is anchored by an inverted glass pyramid, known as the Pyramide Inversée (Inverted Pyramid), which nicely complements the Louvre Pyramid.
The pyramid was designed by the American architecture firm of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, who created a smaller version of Pei’s pyraThe Design mid, turned it upside down right and suspended it right The pyramid is rather modest above a small stone pyramid. in size compared to the surrounding palace wings of the Musée d’Orsay Louvre. It has a height of about 22 meters (72ft) and at its base measures just over 35 meters (116ft). It is flanked by three smaller pyramids and reflecting pools with modern fountains. Much effort was made to make the pyramid as transparent as possible. The 675 diamondshaped and 118 triangular panes were specifically fabricated to make them completely clear. Attention was also paid to the 128 steel girders and 16 steel cables that hold the panes together. Technology from high tech yachts was used to make them as small and unobtrusive as possible.
The architect first appointed was Eugène Hénard. He intended to use industrial material on the facade facing the Louvre. Facing fierce protests from preservationists, the Compagnie d’Orléans decided to hold a competition supervised by a parliamentary commission. The winner of this contest was Victor Laloux, who had also designed the railway station in Tours, France. His design was acclaimed for the integration of the metal vault in the stone exterior. The hall measures 140 meter long, 40 meter wide and 32 meter high (459 x 132 x 105 ft). The whole structure is 175 meter long and 75 meter wide (574 x 246 ft). An impressive 12 000 ton metal was used for the construction of the gare d’Orsay, which is well more than the amount of metal used for the Eiffel Tower.
The Railway Station... The Gare d’Orsay was inaugurated on the 14th of July 1900 for the Paris World Exposition and was considered a masterpiece of industrial architecture. But soon the platforms had become too short for the now much longer trains and as early as 1939, New Railway Stations the gare d’Orsay was out of use as a train station. Over time At the turn of the 19th century, it was used as a parking lot, as two large railway stations were a shooting stand, as a theatre built in Paris, the Gare de Lyon location and even as a recepand the Gare d’Orsay. The tion center for prisoners of war. Gare d’Orsay had the most prominent site, along the Seine opposite the Louvre. The rail- ...Turned into a Museum way station was planned by the Compagnie d’Orléans, who The train station had been wanted to bring electrified trains completely abandoned since right into the heart of Paris. 1961 when it was saved from demolition by the French president Pompidou. In The Musée d’Orsay is a museum housed in a grand railway station built in 1900. Home to many sculptures and impressionist paintings, it has become one of Paris’s most popular museums.
Design
Page 7
1978 his successor, president Giscard d’Estaing, decided to use the Gare Inside the Orsay Museum, Paris Inside the museum d’Orsay as a museum for 19th and 20th century art. It would not only contain paint-
ings, but it would also cover different art forms, including sculptures, engravings, photos, film, architecture and urbanism. Restoration of the Musée d’Orsay, as it is now called, started in 1979 and finally on the 29th of November 1986, the museum was inaugurated by the French president, François Mitterrand.
Collection When it opened the museum contained some 2300 paintings, 1500 sculptures and 1000 other objects. Most of these works of art came from other museums such as the Musée du Luxembourg. Over time the collection has expanded significantly mainly due to acquisitions and gifts. It covers a period from the mid 19th century up to 1914 and contains works from Degas, Rodin, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, van Gogh and others
Centre Pompidou.
In 1969 French President Georges Pompidou launched the idea of creating a new cultural institution in Paris dedicated to modern art.
Functional Design
Pipes of the Centre Pompidou The ‘oil refinery’ 5,000 visitors per day, the Centre Pompidou has been welcoming over 25,000 visitors per day making it one of the most visited attractions in Paris.
More Than a Museum
The Centre Pompidou is home to one of the world’s most important museums of modern art, the MNAM, but it also contains a very popular library, a bookshop, a movie theater and a panoramic terrace. The Public Information Library or BPI boasts a collection of 450,000 books, 2,600 magazines and a large In 1971 a competition for this number of new media items. new cultural center attracted 650 entries. The winning proj- The library occupies the first ect, submitted by the archi- three floors of the building, tects Richard Rogers, Renzo while the museum’s permaPiano and Gianfranco Franchi- nent collection is located on ni broke with architectural con- floors 4 and 5. The first and top ventions by moving functional floor are used for large exposielements such as escalators, tions. The museum has one of water pipes and air condition- the most important collections ing to the outside of the build- of modern art. Its more than ing, freeing interior space for 59,000 works cover a broad the display of art works. The spectrum of 20th century arts. pipes and ducts are all colorcoded: blue for air, green for The 4th floor contains works water, red for elevators, yellow from 1905 to 1965 and covers for electricity, gray for corridors art movements such as fauand white for the building itself. vism, abstract art, surrealism and cubist art. Some of the featured artists include Matisse, Opposition Kadinsky, Miró and Picasso. The construction of the glass and metal building in the Stravinsky Fountain near the centrally located Beaubourg Centre Pompidou in Paris neighborhood ran into a lot of Stravinsky FountainThe 5th opposition from people who floor covers the period after disliked the idea of an ‘oil re- 1965, including the pop-art finery’ in a historic district. But movement and figurative art when the museum opened in December 1977, it became an Place Beaubourg instant success: originally designed to accommodate some The square in front of the Page 8
Centre Pompidou, the ‘Place Georges Pompidou’ or ‘Place Beaubourg’, is very popular. The large crowds are animated by mimes, street portraitists and entertainers.
height of the buildings along the Triumphal Way. Only at the end of the long avenue, at the Défense, were towers allowed. This was recommended by the authorities as towers close to the center would obIf you want to see some mod- struct the view on the Etoile. ern art without going into the museum, just go to the right Most of the 35 (French) entries of the square, to the place in the competition were either Igor Stravinsky where you’ll classical or modernist style, find the most famous modern but again none of the plans fountain in Paris. The foun- were actually realized due to tain has several kinetic sculp- lack of funding. The main fotures, designed by Niki de cus now moved from the TriSaint Phalle and Jean Tinguely. umphal way to the Défense area, or La Défense. The name défense originates from La Défense the monument ‘La Défense La Défense is the prime high- Défense de Paris’, which was rise office district of Paris. erected at this site in 1883 to Many of Paris’s tallest build- commemorate the war of 1870. ings
can
be
found
here.
The Triumphal Way At the end of the first World War, plans were made to develop the axis from the Arc de Triomphe at the Etoile to La Défense, an area at the edge of the center of Paris. Numerous plans were submitted for the Voie Triumphale or Triumphal Way as it was known, most of them with endless rows of impressive skyscrapers in mostly Modernist style. Many of the plans which were submitted in 1930 came from renowned architects like Le Corbusier and Auguste Perret. None of these plans were realized, mainly due to the Great Depression in the 1930s
La Défense. In 1931 though, the authorities organized a new competition, but the intent was to limit the
A Forest of Towers
The result is a mix of mostly cheap towers of different heights. The tallest of them, the GAN tower, measured 179 meters (589 ft).Défense Palace The height of several towers, and in particular the GAN tower caused a public outcry as the ‘forest of towers’ disturbs the view on the Arc de Triomphe as seen from the Etoile. Partly in response to this criticism a new monument was built at the entrance of the Défense as a counterweight for the Arc de Triomphe: The Tête Défense , also known as the Grande Arche de la Défense.
Grande Arche de la Défense
The project to build the ‘Grande Arche’ (Great Arch) was supported by the French president Mitterrand who wanted a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe. The design of Danish architect Otto von Spreckelsen looks more like a cube-shaped building than a triumphal arch. The 106 meters (348 ft) wide building has a central archway. The sides of the cube contain offices while In 1951, the Défense site was the rooftop has a belvedere that chosen as an office center. In until 2010 was open to visitors. 1958, development of the area was started by a special agenOpéra de Paris Garnier cy, the Etablissement Public d’Aménagement de la Défense. The opulent Opéra de Paris Garnier was designed by Charles The first plan had 2 rows of Garnier for Emperor Napoleon skyscrapers of equal height. In 1964, a plan was approved to have 20 office towers of 25 stories each. Little of the development on the Défence was actually built according to this plan, as most companies started to press for taller office towers. Page 9
III. It is the most important sym- rious that it can be compared bol of the nineteenth century with the corridors in Versailles. Second Empire Baroque style. Behind the Grand Foyer and below the green copConstruction per dome is the lavishly Construction of the opera build- decorated auditorium with red ing started in 1862, but it wasn’t velvet, plaster cherubs and completed until 1875, partly gold leaf. The auditorium’s because an underground lake magnificent chandelier weighs was discovered during con- a massive six tonnes. Its ovalstruction. The small lake still shaped ceiling was painted exists under the opera build- in 1964 by Marc Chagall. The ing. It was the hiding place stage behind the auditorium of the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is 60 meter high (197 ft) and in Paul Leroux’s famous play. has room for up to 450 actors.
Palais Garnier Since the construction of the modern Opéra de Paris Bastille in 1989 on the Place de la Bastille, the majestic Opéra Garnier is now mainly used for ballet performances. At the same time, it was also officially renamed ‘Palais Opéra’.
The Building Even though the building has a seating capacity of less than 2,200, the building is one of the largest theatres in the world by acreage. It is 172 meter long, 125 meter wide and reaches a height of 73,6 meter (564 x 410 x 241 ft). The facade is decorated with rose marble columns, friezes, sculpture groups and two large gilded statues.
Interior The interior of the Opéra Garnier building is even more impressive than its exterior. The marble Grand Staircase has a height of 30m/98ft! The 54m long Grand Foyer features a mosaic covered ceiling and a large number of chandeliers. It is so luxu-
tifully decorated with mosaic floors, cast iron gates, marble pillars and ornate clocks.
At its peak during the midnineteenth century, there was a network of more than 140 passages, many connected to each other. The pedestrianized passages, home to shops, restaurants and apartments, were very popular as they protected visitors from inclement weather and the often dirty and odorous streets. Their popularity soon started to decline due to competition from large department stores Galerie Colbert, Paris Location such as Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, and many were The Opera de Paris Garni- abandoned and started to fall er is located at the Place de in disrepair. Others were del’Opera, a square in the 9th molished during the redeveloparrondissement, just north ment of Paris by baron Haussof the 2nd arrondissement. mann between 1852 and 1870.
Passages & Galeries
At the end of the twentieth century, especially during the 1980s, the glass covered passages started a revival, and many of the about twenty surviving shopping arcades were restored, such as the passage Jouffroy with its barrel vault skylight and the elegant Galerie Vivienne with its mosaic floors.
Paris’s historic covered arcades - locally known as passages or galeries - were the precursors of today’s shopping malls. Of the more than one hundred passages that were built during the nineteenth century, about twenty have survived. Most of the surviving covered arcades are located in The passages today the very center of Paris, in or near the 2nd arrondissement. Today the passages are home to numerous upscale, quirky History and specialty shops. At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century numerous covered passages were created in Paris. The passages, mostly shopping arcades covered with glass roofs, were modern symbols of urban life and the place to shop in Paris. Many of these passages were beauPage 10