Paris is famous for its covered “passages” – the original shopping arcades, which were essentially pedestrian streets with glass-and-ironwork covers and an array of little shops.
Before the advent of the out-of-town commercial centre, city-centre shopping arcades – large covered areas where you could walk from shop to shop – were based on this Parisian idea.
Whilst many of the covered ones have survived and are still there today in various stages of decay and/or renovation, the uncovered passages are ones that you would pass by without noticing them as you walk through Paris but which have fascinating stories to tell.
Tootlafrance.ie catches up with Irish-born Paris residents poet Derry O’Sullivan and his wife Jeanne as they take us on a brief tour of some of the passages near their home.