Les Passages

This is a fascinating maze of covered arcades, forming probably the world’s first shopping mall.
Most of the passages specialise; many sell books or stamps and coins for collectors.

One is full of shops which sell nothing but display materials for other shops, so you can go window-shopping in the shop window of a shop window shop.
The area covered by the passages was always a maze of tiny streets. In the Middle Ages it was called the Court of Miracles;
a no-go area for the authorities, where thieves and beggars lived. In the evenings, miracles happened here.
Beggars who had been blind all day suddenly recovered their sight; lame ones walked, scars vanished.
Infirmities, however, always seemed to return in time for the next day’s begging.

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