Where can you discover what Paris was like before Haussmann reshaped the city with his iconic boulevards? How did Paris invent the “art of window shopping” and what did people do in the early years after the French Revolution and under Napoleon on a sunny Saturday afternoon? They went to the covered passages, of course! True pillars of Parisian identity, these pretty shopping arcades had their heyday in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Often abandoned or destroyed today, fewer than thirty of them still exist. Take a stroll through these architectural gems, which cover a wide range of styles (. Some have been magnificently restored, others are still “to be discovered”. Some are prestigious, with chic boutiques and restaurants, while others are more humble. Some are more wholesale-oriented, while others are bustling tourist attractions. Some have more ethnic origins, others are secretive, some neglected. Some have even more or less disappeared, and all we can find are traces of their existence.
The walk will cover a dozen passages, focusing on the most beautiful to be found in Paris.
