Les Halles’ Histories: A Guide to the ‘Belly of Paris’

Les Halles is among Paris’s liveliest neighborhoods. It was once home to one of its oldest food markets, which gave the district its name and fed Parisians for eight centuries. Yet it often gets overlooked for the city’s more touristy corners.

This walking tour follows a circular route, starting and finishing at Saint-Eustache Church. As you walk, I’ll show you traces of the district where Parisians have worked, lived, and died since 1110. I’ll weave together stories from this famous neighborhood’s past, where France’s largest cemetery and the capital’s central market once stood, side by side.

Along the way, I’ll reveal several hidden oddities that embody Les Halles’ unusual history, including a sculpture of an elephant’s head with earrings, the whimsical black cat statue at Le Chat Noir restaurant, and a selection of stuffed rats at La Maison Aurouze, a trap supply store that’s been operating for over a century. I’ll also tell you about the curious case of the playwright Molière’s two birthplaces.

Along the way, you’ll have a chance to:

• Gaze upon Saint Eustache Church, nicknamed the Cathedral of Les Halles
• Walk under a stunning glass canopy at the Forum des Halles, a major market, which welcomes 150,000 visitors every day
• Hear the legend of Saint-Denis, on one of the capital’s oldest streets dating back to 245 AD, Rue Saint-Denis
• Learn what happened to the bones of the two million people who were once buried in mass graves at the Cimetière des Innocents
• See a fourth-generation kitchenware store, E. Dehillerin, which supplied the Titanic’s kitchens
• Circle La Bourse de Commerce, where French billionaire François Pinault’s private art collection, the Pinault Collection, is housed
• Wrap your tongue around the eccentricities of Louchébem, the famous Parisian butcher’s slang

At the end of this hour-long tour, you could have a drink on one of the typical Parisian terraces you’ve passed along the way. Or, come back at 2 am for a real onion soup at the restaurant Au Pied de Cochon!