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.
