1) France takes credit for having invented the shopping mall a few centuries ago. Here and there around the city, there are these "passages" or "galeries," covered areas lined with little shops. This one is the Passage du Grand Cerf.
I looked up "cerf": it means "stag." Don't ask me why this is named the Big Stag.
Oh, crap, the kid has spotted my camera. I'm exposed as a tourist. He wants money for something having to do with Senegal.
2) These places are so cool. They should be humming with shoppers, but the ones I've seen have been rather dead. Even on a Saturday, many of the tiny shops are closed, and there are empty storefronts scattered about.
4) Out the other end and we're on rue St. Denis, the Big Stag Party.
5) Back inside, looking in the other direction. I like the 1800s better.
2 comments:
See Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project, a massive tome describing and interpreting what he considered to be the focal point and microcosm of Parisian life....
Finally back home with easy internet access, I've been able to look into this book. Sounds rather ponderously German, but interesting nevertheless. Thanks for the lead.
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