"LES HALLES:"* THE MARKET A KING ESTABLISHED NEXT TO THE TRADE ROUTE AND CEMETERY
(IN 1135)
*An "halles" is a covered market.
It absorbed the cemetery, and its market.
(In the 1850s)
Vue du cimetière des Saints Innocents, anonymous, 1814 / zoom
Knocked-over tombstones: The church was demolished just before the Revolution, but that upheaval and Napoleon's wars left the cemetery almost intact until the 1820's.
Le Marché et la fontaine du Saints Innocents by John James Chalon,, 1822 / zoom
.png)
# # #
It was one of the most animated parts of Paris...  ...and the setting of a famous American movie...  
...that begins with the drawing above and by a barman saying with a French accent...  "Welcome to Paris! The Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame, the bridges of the Seine, Montmartre. But to find the real Paris, you must come to Les Halles, the wholesale market, the stomach of Paris, and to its busiest street, the rue Casanova, a place of passion, friendship, desire and death, everything that makes life worth living..."      Etc. # # # A visitor recalls "I came here when I was 16 with a friend. We didn't know where we were, but we finally found a room that was so small only one of us could sleep at one time. He went to sleep and I went out to look around. I was astonished to come upon crowds of people in the middle of the night, drunks, prostitutes, men unloading cabbages. I can't believe this is the same place." |
# # #
Too small for the growing city, it is moved to a suburb. Its unique pavillons are torn down...
(In 1970)
Video by photographer Jean-Claude Gautrand / zoom
A park and an underground mall replace them.
 |
| Les Halles now / zoom |
# # #
One can miss a place that pulsed with energy...
 |
Scène au Cimetière des Innocents à Paris by Jean-Claude Tardieu, early 19th century / zoom |
...and appreciate the huge space with greenery
that the cemetery and market left.
 |
| © Philippe Guignard |
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