Walk: “Exploring the Heart of Paris: Les Halles”
What if you could discover the true heart of Paris, where the city’s “belly” still beats? From the Canopy of Les Halles to Rue Montorgueil, from the Passage du Grand-Cerf to the Fountain of the Innocents, this walking tour takes you through eight centuries of market life, crimes, ghosts… and gastronomy.
Your walk begins at Les Halles, once Paris’s central market, established in the Middle Ages on former marshland. Here stood the first wooden market halls, a pillory where fraudulent merchants and blasphemers were exposed, and later the famous Baltard pavilions immortalized by Zola in The Belly of Paris. Between memories of the “Halles hole,” the new luminous Canopy, and the world’s busiest cinema, you’ll discover how this district evolved from a bustling market into a futuristic shopping hub.
You then walk around the large church hidden just behind the Canopy: Saint-Eustache, a stone giant with a hybrid style—Gothic on the outside, Renaissance inside. Here you’ll find a monumental organ, baroque chapels, Pigalle’s Virgin and Child, and echoes of Richelieu, Molière, La Fontaine, Colbert, and Louis XIV, through baptisms, weddings, communions, and funerals.
In just a few steps, you arrive on Rue Montorgueil, a gourmet village in the heart of Paris. Butchers, cheesemongers, pastry shops, bistros packed together… Monet painted this street in celebration, and 19th-century writers set inns and intrigues here. You pass the oldest pastry shop, Stohrer, founded in 1720 by Louis XV’s pastry chef; then L’Escargot de Montorgueil and Le Rocher de Cancale, iconic restaurants frequented by Balzac, Dumas, Proust, and Picasso. A plaque also recalls the tragic story of Jean Diot and Bruno Lenoir, the last people executed in France for homosexuality.
The walk continues toward Rue Saint-Sauveur and Rue Dussoubs, where 18th-century buildings stand on medieval cellars, now listed as historic monuments. Here, you brush against the shadows of Cyrano de Bergerac, Carlo Goldoni on his deathbed, and, at the end of the street, the entrance to the Passage du Grand-Cerf—one of the most beautiful covered passages in Paris, with a 12-meter glass roof, delicate ironwork, and artisan, jewelry, and designer boutiques.
Heading up Rue Étienne-Marcel, you suddenly find yourself face-to-face with the Tour Jean Sans Peur, the last feudal tower in Paris, built for the Duke of Burgundy in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War. Spiral staircase, remains of the Philippe Auguste city wall, medieval latrines, and bloody conspiracies—you tread in the footsteps of a paranoid prince assassinated despite all his precautions.
You then reach Rue de la Grande-Truanderie, once a haunt of street gangs, now tamed but still steeped in criminal legend, before passing Le Pharamond, a 19th-century restaurant and listed monument, famous for its Normandy-style tripe.
Finally, the walk concludes around the Fountain of the Innocents and Place Joachim-du-Bellay, once the site of the gigantic Cemetery of the Innocents. Beneath your feet once lay nearly two million Parisians, whose bones were later transferred to the Catacombs. You finish along Rue de la Ferronnerie, where Henri IV was assassinated, and Rue Courtalon, where a 17th-century case of mummified heads and missing youths adds one last chilling note to the neighborhood.
During this visit you will:
• explore on foot the Les Halles and Montorgueil districts, from the Forum to the Tour Jean Sans Peur, without rushing;
• discover surprising anecdotes: market pillory, overcrowded cemetery, walled-in recluses, last executions, royal assassinations, monumental covered passage;
• enjoy unique photo spots between the Canopy, Saint-Eustache, Rue Montorgueil, Passage du Grand-Cerf, and the Fountain of the Innocents;
• experience an immersive, lively, emotional visit—far from the typical “checklist” tours.
More than just a visit, it’s a plunge into the true “belly of Paris,” filled with market aromas, medieval stones, and dark tales.
Download the Audio Guide Paris app for free and unlock the full walk through the Les Halles district—a popular, mysterious, and strikingly photogenic Paris just waiting to be revealed.