Paris: building works at "Les Halles" site

Les Halles - the "Belly of Paris"

From the late 12th century until the late 1960s, this was the site of the main wholesale food market of Paris.

Its first major "makeover" came in the 1850s, when it was provided with ten massive pavillions constructed in iron and glass. In the late 1960s the market was moved to Rungis, a site occupying 232 hectares (whereas Les Halles had but ten hectares). The pavillions were taken down; nine were destroyed. If you want to see the surviving pavillion, it has been reconstructed at Nogent-sur-Marne, just to the East of Paris.

In the early 1970s Les Halles was a vast, deep building site. The church of St Eustache (rear left) perched precariously beside the hole, and a large, mainly underground shopping mall was created. Much of that mall is now being rebuilt, and a large canopy (to the right) is to provide shelter over the eastern end of the site. The construction work will continue for several years more.


Saint Eustache

A beautiful church, with a sublime mix of late Gothic and renaissance architecture. Well worth a visit, perhaps during one of the free organ recitals given on Sunday afternoons. (The organ has 8,000 pipes!)

Here Richelieu (to become a cardinal and formidable politician), Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour) and Molière (France's master comedy playwright and actor) were baptised, and the burial service of Mozart's mother was performed.