5 stops · 2.1 km
The covered passages
This walk starts with a prelude: the tower that John the Fearless built in 1409–1411, a reminder of how dark and dangerous the medieval streets of this quarter could be. Then it follows the solution that nineteenth-century Paris found for mud, rain and traffic: lanes of shops under glass. Véro-Dodat, opened in 1826, plays tricks with perspective in black and white; Vivienne, of the same year, is the most graceful, with its rotunda and Pompeian ornament. Crossing towards the boulevards you reach the Passage des Panoramas, the oldest of the great passages, and on the far side of the boulevard Montmartre the Passage Jouffroy, built in the 1840s in iron and glass, with its kink and short flight of steps.
2.1 km · about 28 min of walking
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Tour Jean-sans-Peur2nd · A duke’s tower built after a political murder, where a stone oak, hawthorn and hops spread across the top of the stair.
↓ 740 m · 10 min walk
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Galerie Véro-Dodat1st · Two pork butchers’ 1826 shortcut between the Palais-Royal and Les Halles, where crowds once pressed against a window full of caricatures.
↓ 530 m · 7 min walk
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Galerie Vivienne2nd · A notary’s speculation of the 1820s, Pompeian in its colours, where Vidocq once climbed the stairs at no. 13.
↓ 610 m · 8 min walk
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Passage des Panoramas2nd · Named for vanished rotundas of painted cities: the oldest Paris passage, and the first public place in town lit by gas.
↓ 180 m · 2 min walk
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Passage Jouffroy9th · Iron, glass and a heated floor: the 1840s passage that carries the Panoramas north, with a dogleg, a few steps and the waxworks’ back door.
Start: Étienne Marcel 4 170 m · 2 min walk
Finish: Grands Boulevards 89 260 m · 3 min walk