Les Halles Of Paris Renovation, Another Architectural Flop?

Lord knows they have tried once again to make up for the sacrilege destruction of the revered stomach of Paris, Les Halles de Baltard, that proudly stood in the center of Paris for over a hundred years till 1971.

But sadly this second extremely expensive renovation attempt it is nothing more but a blasphemous architectural edifice to cover the void left behind.

It is now officially called La Canopée des Halles.  Promised to offer an allure of lightness, it comes across more like a sagging industrialised hanger like structure that looks heavy, heavy!

Not sursprisingly, because it weighs 8,000 tons, as much as La Tour Eiffel! It has 18,000 glass tiles and covers an area as large as Place des Vosges.

However marvelous some architects might see the design of this new pee coloured canopy, I doubt it will go down in history as worth keeping any more than its precedent cover up, that lasted only 30 years.

When the  mayor of Paris was inaugurating this edifice, she said it was covering up “an open wound”.  Covering it may, but at the same time it may be creating more ugly scars.

I have been following the construction for the past five years. My first impression was that the color was just hideous!

Not at all surprising  99.8% of Parisians have the same reaction, describing the colour as looking like “fresh pee”,  yellow “bird shit”, “rancid butter”or “puke”.

When I, amongst others complained about the colour over two years ago to one of the engineers, he blamed the awful choice on the architect.

Patrick Berger in defending his choice; narcissistically rebuked that “no one asked Monet why he painted houses yellow?”

Just wait till the black Parisian pollution dirties it up, that is oily and resistant to washing away in the rain with even detergents.  Then they will look like muddy pee glass tiles.

Comments about the design faire as bad.   “Indomitable ugliness”, an “architectural delusion gone bad”, “insides look like a Russian gym during Stalin era”.

More vulgare descriptions of it looking like ” grand jaune crotte de nez” or “a big yellow booger”, ” the bottom of a latrine” to a “huge pigeon latrine”.

Lets face it, the City of Paris committed a monumental and irreversible mistake in 1971 tearing down the exalted graceful wrought iron Les Halles of Baltard.   Shame on the outright imbeciles who voted on this totally blatant wreckage of one of the most revered sites of Paris.

Yes, the old place had  soul  and a multitude of energies that reeked of what Paris held most sacred, that you can never recover.  This exalted pinnacle of Parisian gastronomy was raped to the core.

I count myself lucky enough to have at least have some memories of Les Halles in the late sixties before it was mercilessly  torn down.

It was in 1971 that I revisited the area after my student days here.  I was not aware that they had already started to tear parts of it down and it would be my last time to see and experience the real Les Halles.

I remember that last visit well, as I was heading to the famous restaurant Pharamond, that was a favorite of the renown gastronome, Curnonsky.  I recall the vast old green halls and the ever-present Irma La Douce prostitutes hanging around, and one who called out to me as I scurried past her.

The Pharamond, by the way, is still there where you can see the engraved bench where Curnonsky would always sit, but its culinary reputation never survived the heights it held back then.

I went back last week and again this past Saturday to see for myself the newly inaugurated Canopée de Les Halles.  Sadly, I came away as much disillusioned as ever.

Architects Patrick Berger and Jacques Anziutti had envisaged that Parisians and tourists would flock to see the Canopée,  not only as a tourist spot, but also a place to shop.

They are hoping that this renovated shopping center will increase its visitors to over 40,000 a year from its current 37,000.

Other than its central Paris location, there is absolutely nothing, in my opinion, incredibly esthetic to entice the shopper, where the vast majority of stores can be found elsewhere in the city.

The extremely drab mustard colour is more than depressing and the insides, except for the lattice roofing looks like every other shopping center in the world.   A positive note is that there will be a musical conservatoire and library.

It will continue to garner shoppers who travel underneath this behemoth, as the suburban RER A,B,D and metro lines 1, 4, 7, 11, 14,  all have connecting stations, making Les Halles Châtelet the largest underground station in the world.

Around 750,000 people ride the underground transits on any given day, so they at least have numbers to draw from, if some of those folks think it is worth their time to stop and pop up.

It is beyond me how these architects think that his droopy yellow canopy will be a tourist destination?

The word canopy to me conjures up visions of soft leafy branches arching up meeting each other in the middle as if in an embrace to protect and shade, not something that looks like a loosely woven yellow basket sunken in the middle.

If the architect had in mind a large floppy hat, that too could have been seen as offering more uplift and lightness.

An example is the wonderful white canopy of the  Louvre museum extension in Metz. It is a marvel of lightness that looks like it might just take flight at any minute.

I also find it very strange that they would install the largest Hip Hop studio and concert hall  of Ile de France there.  One of main reasons chic Parisians have avoided shopping there is because of less than desirable youth, mostly from poor Northern suburbs, who hang around and pose an ongoing security problem.

They announced that they were going to “clean” up the drug traffickers, and petty delinquents yet strangely contradictory  are inviting this subcultural movement of mostly immigrant youths from the ghettos with their derogatory vulgar rap, hip hop and graffiti to now call Les Halles their Hip Hop home!

High profile chefs , such as Alain Ducasse have signed to open two restaurants, but will they be able to fill them with patrons who are willing to come at night?

Since the terrorist attacks, a lot of restaurants have suffered declining number of clients at night, even in the very nicest of quartiers.

All I can say is that I was happy to exit out onto Rue  Rambuteau and see the old cobblestone streets and Saint Eustache in the background, despite the ongoing construction.  At least the surrounding narrow streets and pathways, along with the Fountain des Innocents still looks like old Paris.

I have always liked the area for its charm of yesterday. I usually head to  Dehillerin,  the ultimate cookware shop for serious cooks just past Saint Eustache and then check out their top notch rivals  on Rue Montmartre just north of Les Halles.

Afterwards I cross Blvd Etienne Marcel, making a beeline to the formidable G. Detou to pick up the best chocolate, nuts, or whatever for my pastries.

More often than not, I will stop on Rue Montorgueil at a very nice green grocers and at least look in the window of Stohrer’s , the oldest pastry shop in Paris.

Yes, of course, the adjoining “gardens” have not been finished, as if that is going to make a big difference.  The former gardens of the last renovation were decent enough, except that they were taken over by drug dealers, more prominently visible a night.

Time will tell of course if it will grow on the Parisians and become a tourist draw like the many other Paris attractions.

Today in the press, it was reported visitors were complaining of rain leaking in Saturday.  It was raining softly and I did not  experience getting wet, but thought it was absolutely awful that some escalators were not working for the inaugural weekend!

The director of the project admitted that the roof is “almost” rain proof, but not “always” and if the city wants  them to correct that, that it will have to be complementary work!

I’ll keep coming to walk around the surrounding area, for the charm and the nearby cookware shops and G Detou, but doubt La Canopée will be a choice destination for me and other Parisians anytime in the future.