• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

8 Statue of Sartre From here head south along rue Vivienne – passing the original home of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France before it moved south, with its curiously bowed statue of Sartre in the courtyard – to rue des Petits Champs and turn right (west).

* * *

WALK FACTS

Start Metro Louvre-Rivoli

End Metro Le Peletier

Distance 3km

Time Two hours

Fuel stops Baan Boran, Café de l’Époque Click here, Café du Théâtre Click here, Le Véro Dodat

* * *

9 Passage Choiseul At 40 rue des Petits Champs is the entrance to passage Choiseul. Passage Choiseul (1828), some 45m long and containing scores of shops, is more ordinary than many of the other passages covered here but is rapidly raising its profile. Discount and secondhand clothing shops (Nos 7–9, 39–41 and 51–53), Asian fast-food shops (for example, Nos 19, 32 and 46) and secondhand bookshops (No 74–76) are getting fewer and fewer. The passage has a long literary pedigree: Paul Verlaine (1844–96) drank absinthe here and Céline (1894–1961) grew up in his mother’s shop at No 62, which now sells costume jewellery. Check out the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, where comedies are performed, at No 61 (the main theatre is around the corner at 4 rue Monsigny, 2e).

10 Bourse de Commerce Leave passage Choiseul at 23 rue St-Augustin and walk eastwards to where the street meets rue du Quatre Septembre. The building across the square is the Bourse de Commerce, built in 1826. Head north and walk up rue Vivienne, and then east along rue St-Marc.

11 Passage des Panoramas The entrance to the mazelike passage des Panoramas is at 10 rue St-Marc. Built in 1800, passage des Panoramas is the oldest covered arcade in Paris and the first to be lit by gas (1817). It was expanded in 1834 with the addition of four other interconnecting passages: Feydeau, Montmartre, St-Marc and Variétés. It’s a bit faded around the edges now, but keep an eye open for Jean-Paul Belmondo’s Théâtre des Variétés at No 17, the erstwhile vaudeville Théâtre d’Offenbach, from where spectators would come out to shop during the interval, and the old engraver Stern at No 47. Exit at 11 blvd Montmartre.

12 Passage Jouffroy Directly across the road, at 10–12 blvd Montmartre, is the entrance to passage Jouffroy. Passage Jouffroy, the last major passage to open in Paris (1846) – and the first to use metal and glass in its skylights and to have central heating – remains a personal favourite; no other passage offers so much or feels so alive. There are two hotels here, including the Hôtel Chopin, as well as the Musée Grévin of wax figures. There are also some wonderful boutiques, including the bookshops Librairie du Passage (Nos 39 and 48), with lots of old postcards, and Paul Vulin (No 46–50); M&G Segas (No 34), where Toulouse-Lautrec bought his walking sticks; Brésilophile (No 40) filled with colourful rocks and minerals; and Cinedoc (Nos 45–53) with film posters, books and postcards for collectors.

13 Passage Verdeau Leave passage Jouffroy at 9 rue de la Grange Batelière, cross the road to No 6, and enter passage Verdeau, the last and most modest of this stretch of covered arcades. Verdeau wasn’t particularly successful because of its ‘end-of-the-line’ location. Still, there’s lots to explore here: Le Cabinet des Curieux (No 12) with weird and curious objects; daguerreotypes at Photo Verdeau (No 14); vintage Tintin and comic books at Librairie Roland Buret (No 6); and needlepoint at Le Bonheur des Dames (No 8). The northern exit from passage Verdeau is at 31bis rue du Faubourg Montmartre.

Return to beginning of chapter

MEDIEVAL MEANDERINGS IN THE MARAIS

Monks and the Knights Templar settled in the Marais as early as the 13th century, which explains the religious nature of many of its street names (eg rue du Temple, rue des Blancs Manteaux). But it wasn’t until Henri IV began construction of place Royale (now place des Vosges) in the early 17th century that the aristocracy began building the hôtels particuliers (private mansions) and pavillons (somewhat less-grand houses)