Les Halles is an area of Paris, France, located in the 1er arrondissement. It is named for the large central wholesale marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles. It is notable in that the open air center area is below street level, like a pit and contains sculpture, fountains, and mosaics.

Beneath this lies the underground station Châtelet-Les-Halles, central hub of Paris's express metro system, the RER.

History

Les Halles was the central Market in Paris. In 1183, King Philippe II Auguste enlarged the marketplace in Paris and built a shelter for the merchants, who came from all over to sell their wares. Known as Les Halles, in the 1850's they built the masssive glass and iron buildings that Les Halles is known for. Les Halles was known as the "stomach of Paris".

Unable to compete in the new market economy and in need of massive repairs, the colorful ambience once associated with the bustling area of merchant stalls disappeared in 1971, when Les Halles was dismantled; the wholesale market was relocated to the suburb of Rungis.

The site was to become the point of convergence of the RER, a network of new express underground lines which had been inaugurated in the 1960s. Three lines leading out of the city to the south, east and west were to be extended and connected in a new underground station. For several years, the site of the markets was an enormous open pit, nicknamed "le trou des Halles" (trou = hole), and a considerable eyesore at the foot of the historic church of Saint-Eustache.

Construction was completed in 1977 on Châtelet-Les-Halles, Paris's new subway hub. The Forum des Halles, a partially underground multiple story commercial and shopping center, opened in 1979.

Émile Zola's 1873 novel Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) revolves around Les Halles.

External link

• Châtelet-Les Halles (http://www.insecula.com/musee/M0104.html/)