Indian Chief Travel Guides

Forum des Halles: Modernity of the Seventies

For a long time no one really knew what should be done with the space left after the historic central market halls, which were made world-famous through Émile Zola’s novel The Belly of Paris (1873), were finally torn down in 1972. In the end a new “Les Halles,” the Forum des Halles was constructed, an underground, not particularly attractive, shopping center. Nonetheless it has more than 300 shops, a large indoor swimming pool, concert hall and various movie theaters. In the largest branch of the Fnac chain you can buy books and CDs or, in the Videothèque de Paris, watch virtually all existing films about Paris.

Underneath the shopping levels there is the largest Métro station in Paris, “Les Halles,” while on the surface the former Halles Quarter has been made into a park. The only old thing now left here is the Fontaine des Innocents ", situated in a bustling square at the southeast edge of the large rectangular area. The fountain which dates from the 16th century is worth seeing for its beautiful bas-reliefs – masterpieces of sculpture from the early French Renaissance.

Touring the Halles Quarter: