The Passages Couverts and the Galeries

When you're around Paris to do some 'shopping do not stop to look at the shop windows that look out on the roads. There are in fact, in this dream city, passages and galleries hard to find unless you go with the intention of entering it.

They are the grandfathers and grandmothers of the modern shopping center, which now fill our city all go back to the early nineteenth century, an era in which the number of crossings in Paris reached a number of 150 (at today there are still about twenty ), and nearly all are located on the Right Bank (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th and 10th arrondissements).

Almost all are freely accessible and comply with opening and closing because access is usually controlled by gates.
Access to Passages are often confused with those of neighboring blocks (which is why it is difficult to find), but just walk into one of them to magically find themselves immersed in an 'atmosphere and in an environment where time seems to stand in 800: the shops are so typical libraries, antique shops, chocolatiers, Taverns, Florists, etc. ...

These Passages were originally narrow streets of the passage between buildings that connected the main roads between them, then the top 800, these teeming streets of shops were covered by glass which zenithal lighting give the place a particular (in addition to making them the ideal place for a walk during a rainy day in Paris).