Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [257]
In the Middle Ages, the entire Les Halles quartier was prominent as the place for starting riots, hatching plots against the government, and seeking approval of the crowd, and royal ordinances and peace treaties were first read here to the market people. Émile Zola’s 1873 novel Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) is set in the Les Halles neighborhood, and his vivid descriptions are one of the best records we have of this extraordinary market. A more recent reminiscence is found in Saveur Cooks Authentic French, from Claude Cornut, second-generation proprietor of a market bistro, Chez Clovis: “Les Halles was a village unto itself in the very heart of Paris. We were so content and self-sufficient that we would forget that there was a world outside. Imagine the ambience of a place that is alive at least twenty hours of the day!”
But by mid-twentieth century the market’s location, which took up about forty acres, became problematic: the nighttime truck traffic was unbearable, and much of the arriving foodstuffs had to be repacked and sent out again to other parts of France and beyond. In 1969, the decision was made to move the market to Rungis, south of Paris (see Rungis entry, this page). Only one of Baltard’s pavilions survived the demolition, and it is now located in the suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, to the east of Paris (reachable by the RER). According to Thirza Valois in the first volume of Around and About Paris, there were many people who lamented the end of the world Les Halles had created. A sculptor observed, “It was a place of bliss … the last vision of natural life in the city. It is now paradise lost,” and a social observer and poet opined, “The death of Les Halles has tolled the knell of Paris.” Fortunately, this last didn’t come to pass, though what followed the demolition was justified cause for alarm: a giant hole in the ground remained for ten years, and then in 1979 the Forum des Halles opened.
The Forum does incorporate nice pedestrian and garden areas that I am fond of, but any mention of the Forum usually refers to its underground shopping mall, which quickly became seedy (and at times unsafe) when the Châtelet–Les Halles Métro station was expanded to become the largest station in the system—the suburban lines connect with the city lines here, and it’s easy to get lost in the labyrinth of passages. Currently, plans are under way for a new glass canopy to cover the existing shopping complex, and a music conservatory, a museum, restaurants, and additional shops will be added. There will be additional garden space added as well, and the whole thing is slated to be completed in 2016.
If I rarely see any North Americans around Les Halles, I have seen even fewer at Saint-Eustache, bordering Les Halles to the north, the second-largest church in Paris after Notre-Dame and among my favorites. Built in the sixteenth century, Saint-Eustache is where Cardinal Richelieu and the Marquise de Pompadour were baptized, where Louis XIII made his first communion, where Jean-Baptiste Lully was married in 1662, and where funeral services for Molière and fable writer Jean de la Fontaine were held. In The Belly of Paris, Monsieur Claude (who is likely based at least a little on the painter Cézanne) tells Florent that he doesn’t believe it was coincidence that brought Saint-Eustache’s rosette windows in alignment with Les Halles. This is modern art confronting old art,