EXCERPT #1 FROM CITY SECRETS: PARIS
LOOKING NORTH ON RUE SAINT-MARTIN FROM THE POMPIDOU CENTER
Pep's at 223, rue Saint Martin; entrance to Passage de l'Ancre
Passage de l'Ancre, off of rue Saint-Martin
Pep's storefront
Passage de l'Ancre's other stores
Passage Jouffroy seen from Passage des Panoramas across blvd Montmarte
Passage Jouffroy entrance from blvd Montmartre
Musee Grevin, entrance from blvd Montmartre
Passage Jouffroy, exit from the musee grevin and on left hotel chopin
PASSAGE JOUFFROY, INTERIOR LOOKING TOWARDS ENTRANCE TO HOTEL CHOPIN
Passage Jouffroy with yellow rose
Passage Jouffroy shop sign for gingerbread
Exiting from Passages Jouffroy_ Verdeau, Rue du faubourg montmarte looking right towards south
Denis Alain Bakery_ Boulangerie Artisanale, 26 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris 9th
Au Fou Rire costumes, 22 bis rue du faubourg Montmartre, Paris 9th
A La Mere de Famille, 38, rue du faubourg Montmartre, Paris 9th
A La Mere de Famille, interior
A La Mere de Famille
A La Mere de Famille
Here’s my first excerpt from City Secrets: Paris, centering on the Passage Jouffroy, an 1845 shopping mall. Click right on the image gallery and what follows in pictures is a slightly expanded walk from the Pompidou Center to the Moulin Rouge.
A La Mère de Famille, confiserie, chocolaterie
33 and 35 rue du Faubourg Montmartre 75009 Paris
Metro: Grands Boulevards 9th Arrondisement
Tracing its roots at the same address to 1761, it’s “mère (mother)” to Marie Adélaïde Bridault who ran the establishment in the early 19th century and its current storefront design to 1895, the iron & glass of the Belle Époque, A La Mère de Famille is one of the classic “confiseries (candy shops)” of old Paris. It’s more than just a “chocolate store”; it’s an “épicerie (grocer)” of candies, cookies, confections and anything that has sugar in it….and some edibles that don’t. Its displays, counters, ambience and simple 19th century shopfront can transport you back to a time when electric lighting, glass display cases and telephones were the techno-marvels of their time.
Access A La Mère de Famille from the Boulevard Montmartre, thru the 1845 Passage Jouffroy (10 Blvd Montmartre, north side of the boulevard) and its immediate neighbor Passage Verdeau (built 1847).
Jouffroy is one of those early glass roofed shopping gallerias (in French: passage or galerie) that began popping up in Paris from the late 18th century on. It’s Paris that invented the ‘shopping mall’ even before the United States existed. By the early 19th century they looked like these two here we’re going through—Jouffroy and Verdeau. In the 1850s, the modern department store was invented and these early shopping malls faded away. Today they’re being renovated for new careers and are packed with fascinating one-of-a-kind stores.
Jouffroy is said to be one of the first “passages”to have all iron framing and actual central heating. It proves that the French were no slackers at making shopping an upscale activity for the modern-day bourgeois. These Parisian “galeries” or “passages” do not have the same upscale chains like their American equivalents. In Paris, the shops are almost always unique, privately run and often fascinating in their array of merchandise as well as their French sense of display. Directly across the boulevard Montmartre (Anglos would capitalize the “b” in boulevard; the French don’t), on its south side, is another of these early shopping malls, the Passage des Panoramas, re-designed in the 1830s with its own elegant decoration and its unique variety of stores.
At the boulevard entrance to the Passage Jouffroy is the Musée Grévin, opened in 1882 and Paris’ native version of Mdme Tussaud’s waxworks museum. Though its subjects tend naturally to be French, and perhaps not instantly recognizable to Anglos, the waxworks themselves are meticulously crafted, the settings pure French “spectacle” and the whole experience an only-in-Paris event.
Halfway through the Passage Jouffroy (it’s 2 full blocks long; the northern half is officially the Passage Verdeau) is the entrance to the Hotel Chopin, a charmer that I can’t vouch for in lodgings put certainly looks the part of a classic, intimate Parisian hostelry. At the northern end of the Passages Jouffroy/Verdeau is the exit onto the rue du Faubourg Montmartre.
Make a left, go maybe half a block and you’ve arrived at A La Mère de Famille. Try not to pig out.
The rue Saint-Martin / St. Martin Street is 1 of the oldest & 1 of the longest streets in Paris, running north from the Seine, north than northeast all the way to Flanders—today’s Belgium.
Here it is running north from the Centre Pompidou_”The Beaubourg” & tho it doesn’t look promising, walk north & discover why Paris is surprising down almost every street.
When I lived in Paris in 1964/65, this was the wholesaling district; the western edge of Le Marais / The Marsh, the Right Bank’s oldest district & in the 16th/17th centuries the place to live for the wealthy—landed aristocrat or parvenu. Today le Marais, like New York’s SoHo is an enclave of wealth tho old wholesaling houses and workshops do still exist
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
Blink and you’ll miss the small sign on the west side of the rue Saint-Martin (the French don’t capitalize ‘street’ etc as Anglos do) between the rue du Bourg l’Abbé and the rue de Turbigo.
Paris invented the shopping mall in the 17th century, small shop-lined passageways where upscale shopping could be done away from the traffic and smells of the street.
Passage de l’Ancre /Passageway of the Anchor is named for an old inn on-site that used the maritime anchor as its symbol. With its roots in the late 18th century this is one of the few open air ‘passages’ as well as one of the oldest that remain. By the first half of the 19th century Parisians started running skylights over their “passages”—first framed in wood, then in iron—to protect the elegant shoppers from the weather. We’ll see a well-known example of those early glass-roofed shopping malls next when visit the Passage Jouffroy on the Grand Boulevards.
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
Address: 225 rue Saint-Martin, 75003 Paris. The Parisian zipcodes tell you which “arrondisement” or ‘district’ you’re in—here”75” tells you it’s Paris and “03” means it’s the 3rd arrondisement.
These old Parisian shopping malls are known as ‘passages (passageways)” or “galeries (gallerias)”. There are probably 30/40 still left and many have been restored to their original charm & even splendor. All of them are on the Right Bank (the north side of the Seine River) because this is where upscale shopping was done in the 17th thru early 20th centuries.
Unlike American malls, whether suburban or urban, which have the same branches of the same upscale stores that you see everywhere, the Parisian galeries and passages have unique shops, often 1-of-a-kind, with window and interior displays showing the French genius for visual delight.
Here in the Passage de l’Ancre is Pep’s well-known umbrella store, a children’s clothing boutique and other stores of quirky individuality
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
Pep’s is well known for its premier umbrella selection, including hand-mades & its rare ‘umbrella hospital’. It’s the kind of store we used to have in New York but they’ve disappeared—at least as street level shopfronts because the rents are too high. Here in the heart of Paris Pep’s, existing for over 50 years, still serves us with a special selection of a niche product.
PEP’s Umbrellas and Repairs website: http://www.peps-paris.com/index.html (in French, but I imagine Google can translate).
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
The French have a gift for visual display seen in their boutique windows and store arrangements. This carries over into entertainment. If you don’t understand French, ask around for “spectacles” / spectacles that rely more on visual effect than language. Paris theaters that specialize in “spectacles” are the Theatre du Chatelet (in the center of Paris on the Right Bank by the Seine) and the Parc de la Villette’s Cité de la Musique (Center for Music) in Paris’ northeast.
Walking further north up the rue Saint-Martin
If you return to the rue Saint-Martin and walk north (on leaving “Ancre” make a left) in a couple of blocks, on the right, is the Musée des Arts et Métiers / the Museum of Arts, Crafts and Industry which has everything from early French aviation “machines” to the history of the Paris ‘garment industry” (think: New York’s “7th Avenue”, French version) This includes the story of upscale shopping in Paris including the “passages’ we’re looking at and the mid 19th century appearance of the great Parisian department stores (“les grand magasins”).
Continue on rue Saint-Martin past “Arts et Métiers” to the boulevard Saint-Martin, part of the Grand Boulevards (see the next image), Make a left and walk about 10/15 minutes to the Passage Jouffroy at 10 Boulevard Montmartre, Paris, 75009.
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
Nearest Métro stop: Les Grand Boulevards
Passage Jouffroy (10 boulevard Montmartre north side of street; built 1845) is on the Grand Boulevards, the semi-circle of boulevards on Paris’ Right Bank, running from Place de la Concorde (between the Louvre and the Champs Elysées) to the Place de la Bastille (where the French Revolution began). This semi-circle of boulevards — changing names every few blocks — are the very first boulevards, built by Louis XIV on the site of Paris’ medieval walls. Even the term “boulevard” is derived from the military use of the walls—applied to this new kind of urban promenade designed with broad streets and even wider sidewalks continuously framed by a solid line of street trees and 7 story buildings. Paris would be Europe’s first self-consciously “beautiful” city made for walking, dawdling and café sitting.
The Passage des Panoramas, from which this view was taken, is older than Jouffroy but re-done in the 1830s with a then-fashionable panoramic painting, an early version of today’s “virtual reality”. The painting is long gone but Panorama remains with its own selection of small boutique stores.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
Typical of these early Parisian shopping malls, the 1845 Passage Jouffroy has no advertising in front, no retail signage, no hip-hop music, no guy on a high stool barking at us to “enter and buy”—as used to be the case on New York’s 14th Street (since poshified into a new existence).
Running thru the block, the first several yards of Paris’ “passages” are usually dark because they pass thru the building that lines the street—here it’s the Hotel Ronceray. To the unsuspecting tourist, Jouffroy looks like the private entrance to the hotel. None of these ‘passages’ and ‘galeries’ give us a clue on the outside of the treasures we might find inside of it. That’s why you have to “poke” around Paris to discover the city’s serendipity.
The Jouffroy was one of the earliest “passages” to have indoor heating, a boon to shoppers in the grey, dank winters of northern Europe. It’s also one of the “newer” passages to have iron-framed skylights instead of wood—a nod to the steel-and-glass construction of today.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
The Musée Grévin is Paris’ own special waxworks museum, opened in 1882 built in a flamboyant neo-Baroque style that says “19th century nouveau-riche”. Its “Hall of Mirrors” was bought from the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Though its mannequins are largely French historical and pop culture figures (“Michael Jackson” and “Donald Trump” bring the collection up to date), the opulence of the setting, the artful-ness of the ‘scenes’ and waxwork groupings are a great example of the French penchant for visual display. There’s an entrance fee, but for a classically Parisian experience, visit the Grévin. Then leave by the Passage Jouffroy exit and enjoy the Passages Jouffroy/Verdeau on your way north to the rue du Faubourg Montmartre / the Street of the Suburb of Montmartre.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
Here’s where you exit from the Grévin into the Passage Jouffroy. You’ll note the not-too-subtle finger pointing hands to direct you to the actual entrance. There is nothing subtle about the Grévin; that’s why it’s so Paris of the late 19th century.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
Heated in winter and protected by the skylights from rain, sleet and snow, the Jouffroy was the epitome of luxurious shopping when it opened in 1845. It was a perfect place for a hotel to be situated, so the “Chopin” was added in 1846, a year after the passage debuted. By the 1850s the modern department store was invented (in French: le grand magasin) with “passages” and “galeries”on every selling floor. These original “passages” faded away, many demolished. By the time I lived in Paris in 1964/65 these early shopping malls were dusty and forlorn, mostly the retreat of used book stores and antique shops—an alternate world that had its own charms. Today, one by one, they’ve been brought back to a new, more upscale life
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
The 1845 Jouffroy was supplemented to its north by the Passage Verdeau (1847). With the Passage des Panoramas on the south side of the boulevards (the first photo of the Jouffroy was taken from the Panoramas) these 3 passages create a several block long indoor route that might come in handy when the weather’s un-cooperative. It’s worth knowing about these passages/galeries for protection when Paris’ skies go grey.
Near the Louvre, on its north side, is the Palais Royale whose back gardens in the 1780s were encircled by pavilions sporting a continuous verandah to protect café sitters and strolling shoppers: it became one of the world’s first modern shopping malls & today has become once again fashionable. Its continuous roofed walkways offer shelter from scorching suns or drizzly skies. Near the Palais Royal are several other “passages” including the Galerie Véro-Dodat and the Galerie Vivienne with its Roman style mosaic floor, both dating from the 1820s. Google them and discover some wonderful shopping, tea-rooms and hidden restaurants.
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
The signage, storefronts and merchandise of these Parisian passages are as interesting to visit as the great museums. Don’t sell Paris short by visiting only the ‘great sites’. Wander the streets, just to browse and you never know what you’re going to discover. Sit in a café and watch the world go by. You’ll learn about the French and their “art” of inhabiting a city; it’s the equal of anything you’ll learn at the Louvre.
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
On exiting the north end of the Passages Jouffroy / Verdeau , we are on the rue du Faubourg Montmartre/Street of the Suburb of Montmartre. “Faubourg” means “suburb” and this means we’re outside the old medieval walls of Paris (today the route of the Grands Boulevards) in what once were the suburbs of the walled city. This street runs northward, to the left, (changing names 3 times, but that’s Paris) to the even more ‘distant suburbs’ of Pigalle and Montmartre.
To our right, as seen above, is ‘south’ (and another way back to the Grands Boulevards) with the following interesting boutiques:
Denis Alain, boulangerie artisanal (artisanal bakery), 26 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009 (9th arrondisement) Paris, France
Au Fou Rire (at the wild time), costumes, 22 bis (next door) rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009
To our left is ‘north’ and in one block we’re at A La Mère de Famille
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
(Image Source: Barry Lewis © 2008)
Paris is a city of confiseries (candy stores), chocolatiers (chocolate stores) and glaciers (ice cream shops). With my sugar restrictions, I can’t touch any of it. French sweets can be addicting: they have the fresh tastes of their ingredients—a shocker to Yanks used to American commercialized products. Here is one of Paris’ oldest candy shops, but I’ve never been inside: it’s just too tempting.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
A cabinet of dried fruit, nuts and jams.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)
Nos Pralinés/ Our Pralines….Need I explain.
Continuing north on the rue du Faubourg Montmartre:
If you continue walking north on the rue du Faubourg Montmartre (it changes names to Notre Dame de Lorette and then Pierre Fontaine), at the rue Chaptal you can visit (if you can find it) the Musée de la Vie Romantique / the Museum of the Romantic Life—the country cottage of a 19th century court painter, and a total surprise—and at the corner of rue de Douai is the Café Long Island (if you’re a New Yorker, you’ll understand). Finally, at the Boulevard de Clichy, you will arrive at the fabled Moulin Rouge/the Red Windmill, the 19th century Paris dance hall immortalized in artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s legendary paintings, watercolors and posters. It stands at the “front door” of the famous/infamous neighborhood of Pigalle.
Typical of Paris’ serendipity, near the Moulin Rouge is a small “guitar store” district centered on the rue de Douai (at Douai and Fontaine is the Café Long Island). To get the list, Google “guitar stores, Paris 75009”and you’ll get links & addresses. I know nothing about guitars except for the fine sounds they make, but I stood mesmerized at these guitar store shop windows displaying beautifully crafted instruments. One store specialized in Arabic ouds and its cousins.
(Image Source: Fabrice Moussus © 2017)