Passage Verdeau

We will start with Passage Verdeau, n° 31, rue du Faubourg Montmartre. Going out of metro station Le Pelletier, turn left into rue Lafayette that we cross to take on the right rue du Faubourg Montmartre.

On our way, few meters before the entry into passage Verdeau, let's stop in front of the old shop “A la Mere deFamille“, the oldest confectionery store in Paris. It still has its wood and brass cash register, its old school display wood cases, shelves with jars full of candies, sweets and chocolates. Its front listed facade names in gold leaf a large number of sweet treats. The store has been a paradise for the sweet tooth since 1761, as written on the large sign across the second floor. It is always plunging me back into my childhood, truly as my “madeleine de Proust”. It was the first stop when my mother and I were going from our home, rueClauzel to a friend of hers living rue Saint-Marc.

Passage Jouffroy

Let's cross rue de la Grange-Batelière and let's enter into the passage Jouffroy that could only be providing joy to a six-year old girl in the sixties. Of course, the windows of the Grevin Museum with wax statues were quite an attraction. There was also a toy store with a horrible little papier maché bulldog at the entrance, growling horribly when I was pulling its leash. Then, I was taking a trip in the oriental shop, as large as a souk. I was Aladin, walking among the thick wool carpets to the rhythm of oriental music. I was a princess in front of wooden boxes with mother-of-pearl inlays full with heavy jewels and colored scarves.

Today, the Passage has kept its same charming character. And the entrance of the hotel Chopin always makes me want to be a tourist. Of course, I can notice new changes at each one of my visits in the passage, and it makes me feel nostalgic. This is the relentless wind of modern times which blows away the rare books, the charms of a toy store and brings a Mark & Spencer store quite out of place here. Fortunately, a break in the nice tea room always calms down my melancholy.
When we go out of the Passage Jouffroy,we can feel the contrast between its charming quiet atmosphere with the noisy boulevard des Italiens. Let's cross the boulevard to enter into the Passage des Panoramas leaving the traffic and noise behind.

Passage des Panoramas

When I was a child, the passage with its stamp shops seemed to me too sad and too quiet. Today, it is more lively especially with new restaurants, like the first gluten free restaurant that opened in Paris. The legendary engraver Stern, established since 1834, known by the Parisian high society for their calling cards, menus cards and announcements has now been replaced by a fine Italian restaurant.

The passage, which is standing at the side of the Theatre des Variétés is described by Emile Zola in his novel, Nana.The following extract reminds me quite the excitement I had as a child in the Passage Jouffroy…

"She adored the Passage des Panoramas, a survival of her childhood passion for flashy fancy goods, dress jewellery, fake leather, and rolled gold. Whenever she went through there, she could never tear herself away from the various displays, just like the down-at-heel little chit of a girl who used to stand dreamily staring at the sweets in a confectioner’s, listening to a barrel-organ playing in a nearby shop; she had a special weakness for cheap and gaudy knick-knacks, vanity cases made of nutshells, rag-and-bone men’s baskets in which to stuff toothpicks, or thermometers in the shape of Vendôme columns and obelisks. "

Nana- Emile Zola

Let’s now take the Galerie des Variétés on the left and then the deserted Galerie Saint-Marc which ends at n°8, rue Saint-Marc where we make a right.

We now walk in front of the main entrance of the Passage des Panoramas, at n°10. The high arched doorway captured by Atget is gone, together with the southern part of the Passage, demolished in the 20^thcentury. It has been replaced by an ugly doorway topped with high buildings.

At n°18, is a mansion once owned by Magon de la Balue, a prominent Court banker at the time Choiseul was the Chief minister of king Louis XV. It is a nice transition to go now to rue and Passage Choiseul …

Opera Comique 

At the end of rue Saint-Marc, let's turn left into rue Favart and cross the square along the Opéra Comique. I read once in the newspaper Le Monde a little story about this beautiful theatre which has to maintain a curious tradition. Indeed, the Choiseul family was granted by King Louis XVI the privilege of owning forever a private eight seats box in this theatre. This was as a recognition of their donation of a part of their private mansion garden for the construction of the Theatre in 1781. And this forever, as long as a male descendant would still bear the name of Choiseul. A private box with a private lounge connected directly with the Choiseul's mansion through an underground passage! However, the game is over for the Choiseul family who never missed a performance. After a complete renovation of the theatre and full compliance with safety standards, a ventilation shaft has impaired the box now cut by half. Seven times in the past, the Choiseul family took legal actions against the head of the Theatre who tried to dislodge them. The drama is set, how is it going to end?

Rue Choiseul Old shop 

Let's now continue, taking a left onto rue Marivaux, a right onto rue Gretry. Make a right onto rue Gramont up to rue Saint-Augustin. Turn right. You will find the entrance to Passage Choiseul at n° 23, rue Saint-Augustin.

Up to now (October 2024), I've been advising lovers of old shops to stop at 4 rue de Choiseul, where the oldest mercerie in Paris used to be. It had remained in its original condition for almost 200 years.  This was no ordinary haberdashery, with buttons of all kinds, with fabrics of all kinds, and with satin and velvet ribbons far different from today's polyester ribbons. Today, the shop has disappeared due to a real estate operation by the Carac group. It had already come close to becoming a bistro thirty years ago, but that's all over now. We can find some consolation in finding some of the saved stock in the shop opposite...

To take some comfort, we can stop off at Café Joyeux (cheerful) right at the entrance to the passage. This is no ordinary café either, as it hires people with Down's syndrome or autism. And it's true, joy reigns among the employees, happy to have a job that gives them dignity and confidence, and among the customers, happy to contribute.

Passage Choiseul 

In the seventies, I used to go through the Passage Choiseul to meet up with my mother who was working at the Place Gaillon nearby. At that time, it appeared to me a little bit corny, with its quite old fashioned clothes and shoe shops.

In his book Death on Credit (Mort à crédit), the writer Céline tells about his childhood. He disliked the Passage where he lived at n° 64, upstairs his mother's lace shop. As he was suffering from anemia, the family's doctor exclaimed, in Céline's vigorous and distinctive style:
“What he needs isn’t two weeks, but three months of fresh air!... “ That’s what he said. “Your Passage,” he went on, “is a pesthole… You could not even get a radish to grow there! It’s a urinal without doors or windows… You’ve got to get out of there!...”

Needless to say that this picturesque description cannot be applied anymore to the Passage, well-used during the week by many people working in the district

Before the Passage was built and opened in 1827, there was a mansion, owned by the Marquis de Gesvres Governor of Paris in 1703, which was said to be the most famous gambling place. This mansion was built in 1655 by a famous architect: Antoine Lepautre, known also for having built the Port-Royal convent and the elegant hotel de Beauvais, rue François Miron. We can see in the Passage a loggia with columns and a pediment: it is a remain of the central dwelling of the former mansion. Through the glass ceiling of the Passage, we can also see the shape of a perpendicular building: it is also a remaining part of the former mansion. In 2000, the owners of this remaining town house, Joseph Achkar and Michel Charrière, two renown interior designers have beautifully renovated the rooms (they also restored the Hôtel de la Marine, place de la Concorde).

Just before the main exit of Passage Choiseul towards rue des Petits-Champs, let's take the Passage Sainte-Anne on the left. So different with the main Passage, especially in Atget's and Céline's time, it could have deserved this name of Passage des Bérésinas. Céline gave this name to the Passage Choiseul, the Berezina being the doomed and cold location of Napoleon's defeated army's retreat from Moscow. The photo of the Passage Sainte-Anne taken by Atget with the geometric lines of the glass ceiling is perfectly graphic.

Square Louvois and BnF

We arrive in rue Sainte-Anne which we take on our left up to rue Rameau. Make a right on rue Rameau and let's take a break in Louvois garden. On our way on rue Sainte-Anne, I recommend the  outstanding spices store, created by the Chef Roellinger.

After a break in the small Square Louvois, let's walk across the street to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France building, which includes a large number of photographs by Eugène Atget in its rich collection of documents. On your way back to the main hall, don't miss the Oval Room. Exit via the garden, where the Galerie Vivienne and the Galerie Colbert are opposite.

Galerie Colbert

Galerie Colbert is owned by the National Library of France – BnF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) since 1974. GalerieColbert was so ruined that it was demolished and then rebuilt as it was.
Today, it is used by the National Institute for Art History (INHA–Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art) and by the French National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INP–Institut National du Patrimoine).

The center of the rotunda was initially decorated with a high bronze chandelier supporting seven crystal globes. Then, the elegant gallery became deserted by the end of the 19th century, falling in disrepair, as shown by Atget's photograph. The crystal globes were gone by that time and the gallery was used to store handcarts.

The chandelier has been replaced by a bronze statue, Eurydice mourante (Dying Eurydice) aka Eurydice piquée par un serpent (Eurydice bitten by a snake), made in 1862 by Charles François, aka Nanteuil. In the 1980's, after the renovation of Galerie Colbert, the statue was moved from the garden of Palais-Royal inside the rotunda.

Galerie Vivienne

Let's go back to rue Vivienne to find the Galerie Vivienne at n°6. To me, this is the most beautiful covered Passage of Paris. It got a big immediate success when it was built in 1826, and then at the beginning of the 20^thcentury, the elegant gallery fell into neglect. Today, it is beautifully renovated and all the shops are really fabulous. Its fame also attracts many tourists that you will see accompanied by experienced guides.

Vidocq, the famous criminal who became a detective, lived in 1840 at n°13 of the Passage. Tt is said that he was using underground galleries of Paris like Valjean,the famous hero of Hugo's novel Les Misérables. Rather than comparing him to Jean Valjean, I should rather say like the detective Javert, Hugo's police detective, as when Vidocq lived here in the Passage, it was as the head of his private detective agency.

Staircase at 13, Galerie Vivienne
Atget – Mai 1906
(BnF)

Let’s now exit onto rue des Petits-Champs and make a right. Head up and make a left on rue Vivienne to reach Palais-Royal through the Passage du Perron.

Passage du Perron and Palais-Royal

At Colette's time and later in the sixties when my mother was taking me for a walk in the garden of Palais-Royal, it was quite deserted. I preferred the Tuileries garden, across the street, less calm, more open and pleasant for a child. However, I was completely fascinated by the old windows displaying pipes, medals and tin soldiers looking from an other age. These old shops still exist; A l'Oriental is still selling carved pipes and Bacqueville is still manufacturing Legion of Honor medals and other awards. An other wonderful childhood memory is the view of actors during a break. A Don Rodrigue with a sword by his side talking to a Chimene in her long dress outside on a balcony of Comédie Française; this was ever more increasing my feeling of having entered in an other dimension of space and time once intoPalais-Royal.

Three... Six...Nine..., written in 1945 by Colette is about her nine moves within Paris, one being her first-floor apartment at 9, rue de Beaujolais in which she describes the garden of Palais-Royal, then quite deserted and still unknown by many Parisians. The garden was then only known and visited by the locals walking their dog or child, as Colette would put it…

She lived twice in Palais-Royal, on the first-floor at the first time, just above the shop with the arched windows; and later on the second-floor where she died. Her name is engraved on a seat of the prestigious restaurant nearby, le Grand Véfour, where she was dining frequently until her last days.

Attraction of tourists and Parisians alike, Palais-Royal offers the combined pleasure of its arcades, providing a nice shelter along elegant shops and its calm garden away from the traffic. Whatever the day, the time, the season, the weather, you can always spot young couples in their wedding outfits posing for photos. Many Parisians have rediscovered the place thirty years ago to see those Buren's columns which originally received a lot of negative criticism, as well as Pol Bury's steel spheres fountains reflecting the elegant classical architecture of Palais-Royal.

Before being Royal, it was Palais Cardinal when it was built in 1636 by Cardinal Richelieu. It became Palais Royal when it was inherited by the royal family from the cardinal. Later, before the French Revolution, Philipped'Orléans, cousin of King Louis XVI, decided to close the three sides of the garden with stone arcades built by Victor Louis, architect of the Comédie Française theater. The various shops, gambling dens, cafes and restaurants which opened in the new galleries got an immediate success. It was also a gathering place of prostitutes, especially around the Galeries de bois,a temporary wooden arcade, which was standing in the place of the today Galerie d'Orléans between the gardens and the inner courtyard (Cour d'Honneur).

Today, the Palais Royal accommodates the Council of State, the Constitutional Council and the Ministry of Culture.

The statue Eurydice bitten by a snake was moved from Palais Royal to the rotunda of Galerie Colbert. However, AdolpheThabard's Snake Charmer is still in the garden, though it both lost its left arm together with the snake, still visible on Atget's photo.