Passage Jouffroy 02
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Passage Jouffroy 02
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Passage Jouffroy, Paris, France.
Vertical panoramic view of one of the surviving passages in Paris.
The passage Jouffroy is a walkway that connects boulevard Montmartre with rue de la Grange-Batelière. Iy was built in 1845 as an extension of Passage des Panoramas, in order to take advantage of the latter's popularity.
The whole passage is approximately 140 m long and 4 m wide. About 80 m from its start on Boulevard Montmartre, the passage turns at a right angle and travels a few meters to the west in order to descend a few steps. It then sets off again in a northerly direction until its outlet on rue de la Grange-Batelière. This double "L" shaped step catches up with a small drop in the last section, imposed by the irregular configuration of the three plots on which the passage was built. This last part of the passage is particularly narrow, leaving room only for the corridor and a shop.
The passage Jouffroy is preceded on the other side of the Boulevard Montmartre by the Passage des Panoramas and succeded on the other side of the Rue de la Grange Bateliere by the passage Verdeau.
The covered passages were an early form of shopping arcade built in Paris, France during the first half of the 19th century. By the 1850s there were approximately 150 covered passages in Paris but many were lost during Haussmann's renovation of Paris. Only a score or so of passages remain, all on the Right Bank .
These covered passages always connected two streets, were all paved, covered with glass-ceilings, artificially illuminated at night (initially with gas lamps) and were privately owned. As they were devised for the high and upper-middle class to spend their time and money when the weather was foul and the streets were muddy, the passages held cafes, shops and restaurants, all highly ornamented and decorated.
Nowadays, a hidden treasure in Paris, antiques dealers and unique shops (old books, postcards, collectors' cameras, etc.) have set up in those passages, in perfect communion with the romantic decoration and lighting of these tiny holes in time.
As for Paris... what can one say about the City of Light that has not already been said...?
More views of Paris one copy-paste away in my Gallery at http://westonwestmoreland.com/collections/paris
Weston Westmoreland.
Uploaded
October 28th, 2020
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