Ancestor of the shopping centre
The first covered, lit shopping space in Europe.
Mbzt — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Coyau — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Coyau — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Coyau — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Galerie Vivienne is the most beautiful and best known, with its mosaic floor; the Passage des Panoramas is the oldest and liveliest; and the Passage Jouffroy roughly links them. Those three are close together in the 2nd and 9th arrondissements and can be walked in an hour.
Not on its own. But it is useful as a comparison: after seeing the restored and elegant Galerie Vivienne, a quiet, less-restored passage shows what these spaces were in ordinary daily use rather than in their tourist version.
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A covered commercial arcade of the early nineteenth century near Place de la République, among the least known and quietest of Paris's covered passages. The covered passages were a Parisian invention of that period: private streets roofed in glass, paved and lit, built before the city's streets were paved and lit at all. They were the first shopping spaces in Europe you could walk through without mud, carriages or rain — the direct ancestor of the modern shopping centre. Paris once had more than a hundred and fifty passages, of which only about twenty survive. Some have been restored and filled with cafés and smart shops; this one is at the other end: quiet, modest and less restored, with ordinary craft and trade shops. Practical point: free and open during business hours, and the visit is minutes. Combine it with other passages in one walk — that is the best way to understand them.
The first covered, lit shopping space in Europe.
Quiet and modest, with craft shops rather than smart cafés.
Built when the streets of Paris were muddy and unlit.
Near Place de la République, 3rd arrondissement, Paris
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