Bourse du Commerce
Opening times: 9am–5pm Mon–Fri
Tel: 01. 55 65 55 65
Did You Know?
The City of Paris sold the Bourse du Commerce to the Chamber of Commerce
in 1949 for the sum of one franc.
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The Bourse du Commerce overlooks the Forum des Halles, a vast underground shopping complex with a central open-air portion located below ground level and surrounded by roof gardens with walkways, pergolas and pavilions at street level. The shops occupy two levels and contain everything from chic boutiques to megastores, as well as a multiplex cinema and a swimming pool. It is also home to the world’s busiest underground station (Châtelet les Halles), linking the Paris metro to the major suburban railway (the RER).
Built in 1979, the complex is simply referred to as Les Halles. It replaced the old wholesale fruit, vegetable and meat market of the city, which was a vast iron-and-glass complex designed by Victor Baltard in the 1850s known as the ‘belly of Paris’. The area had traditionally been the site of a market, dating all the way back to the 1180s when King Philipp-Auguste built a shelter for merchants to sell their wares. The wholesale market moved to Rungis on the outskirts of Paris in the 1960s and Les Halles was dismantled in 1971. Its replacement has never been popular and there are frequent discussions about ways it could be improved.
Located at No. 2 the Grande Galerie is the Forum des Images. This shop sells thousands of cinema, television and amateur films, many of which feature Paris. Some of the footage dates back to 1895 and includes newsreels of General de Gaulle avoiding sniper fire during the 1944 Liberation of Paris. The Forum also hosts ‘Cours de Cinéma’ in the evenings, where classic films are discussed.
Forum des Images
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Leave Forum des Halles via rue Berger and turn left. You will come to a small square at the junction of rue St-Denis. At the centre of the square sits this elegant stepped fountain. Originally called the Fountain of the Nymphs, the Fountain of the Innocents is the last Renaissance fountain left in Paris and was,
Beaubourg
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