Arcades of Paris - continued

Having admired these arcades (the floor mosaics are especially beautiful) we continue turning right into  rue des Petits-Champs. We pass the Bibilotheque Nationale  after some 700 metres (right hand) we get to the entrance of the  Passage Choiseul (7).  This is a more workaday arcade. The shops are simple and above all afordable. Cheap clothing, stationary and other everyday goods are on offer here and some bars and cheap dim sum eateries.  We sit down for lunch at one such Chinese joint for lunch. The well known but controversial novellist  Céline lived here at no. 67 and devoted some lines to this arcade in his novel " "Death on Credit" (Mort à Crédit), but renamed it  Passage de Bérésinas.

We walk back through rue des Petits-Champs up to rue Viviennes. We turn right here and at the T-junction with  Rue de Beaujolais  we find the entrance to the gardens of the  Palais Royal (8). Even these gardens are an oasis of quiet in this bustling city. On the left side is the  of the garden under collonades is the Galérie de Valois. On the right hand side is the  Galérie de Montpensier. In the former we find a purple coloured perfume store by  Serge Lutens (no 142). At the end of the garden we walk into the court yard of the  Palais Royal, with the remarkable black and white striped colomns, who were put here in 1982 by Daniel Buren, commissioned by the flamboyant Culture minister Jack Lang.  

We leave the gardens through a gate leading to the Place de Valois and continue straight on into rue de Montesquieu. We end up at Galerie Vero-Dodat (9) . This is a very posh arcade, yet a little gloomy. The arcade was named after two butchers who set up the arcade in 1824. At no. 24 we find  Mr Capia the doll repair man. A unique shop full of antique dolls and their attire, where time seems to have gone by unnoticed. Ohter shops include a book shop and a shop for musical instruments. 

Coming out of the arcade we turn left into rue J.J. Rousseau followed by right turn into  rue Colonel Driant and left again into rue du Louvre . Then right into de rue Coquilleres. We are passing the modern Jardins des Halles, laid out on top of a underground car park . At the end of  rue Coquilleres stands the St Eustache church. During the Paris Commune of 1870 a woman preachted on the abolition of marriage.  In one of the side chapels hangs a naive work of art called "The departure of the fruit and vergetables form the heart of Paris 28 February 1969" . It commemorates the demolition of the Food Halls, the wholesale food market that stood here for centuries. We turn left at the church into Rue du Jour.  Next we cross rue Etienne Marcel and going right  we keep left into   rue Tiquetonne in. We cross the busy market street rue Montorgueil and turn left into rue Dussoubs. We arrive (right hand side) at the Passage du Grand Cerf. (10) This is the most stylish of all arcades. Lots of cast iron decorations, glas roof and wooden shop fronts. The shops are filled with decorative art. It is all very trendy and  "cool". The arcade is spanned by bridges connecting the upstairs appartments. 

We get out on rue St Denis turning left into it on our way to the last arcade. The rue St Denis is a bit sleazyg. We zig zag along prostitutes and cross the busy  rue Réaumur over. After a few hundred metres we arrive at the   passage de Caïre (11). This arcade is despite its relatively modern outlook the oldest (1798) of all the Parisian arcades. Its name is due to the Egypt mania that raged in France after Napoleons expedition into Egypt.  Almost all shops are wholesalers suppling clothing to the nickle and dime shops on rue St Denis. We leave the arcade at the other end in rue d' Aboukir. We turn left here and walk to the subway station  Sentier at the junction with  rue Réamur.