passages couverts

Honestly, to me they are a “walk-thru” unless you are going to shop or eat. I started at Galerie Vivienne and walked thru several to Passage des Panoramas.

I got bored after 3 or 4 but maybe you won’t! Each person enjoys different things!

I guess it depends on the purpose of your visit. None of them will particularly take a long time to see.

Once you've seen a few, you get the idea. Lovely as they are, they're just a place to shop.

I remember these from MANY years ago (1980, to be exact) when I accompanied my new husband on his study abroad trip to Paris. As an architecture student one of his assignments was to visit and sketch these covered passages. I remember hunting for them all over Paris (with a paper map, of course, no GPS.)

The most memorable one was somewhere in the red light district, I guess, because as soon as he settled down on a street corner to begin sketching, a "lady who does favors for money" chased him away saying du balai, ce coin est a MOI. (Get out of here, this is MY corner!)

So we found another spot and while he sketched I watched as the woman picked up clients, took them into a building across the street, and came out 30 minutes later only to start all over again. As a sheltered, small town girl just barely out of high school I had never seen ANYTHING like that! 😲

We spent 2 or 3 hours walking through Passage Verdeau (9e), Passage Jouffroy (9e), Galerie Vivienne (2e) and Galerie Colbert (2e). Only the last one (Colbert) was not all that interesting to me; it has no shops.

We’d stop and enjoy an art gallery here, a used bookstore there, and a doll shop or toy store elsewhere. Between some of the Passages Couvertes, we picked up some sandwiches for lunch from a boulangerie and enjoyed them in the Jardin du Palais Royal. It was a great way to enjoy 19th C. Paris for half a day.

I don’t know that I’d want to devote a full day or two days to them, but we had a lovely time … and avoided some June heat and crowds that morning.

We selected the four that we walked because of how they lined up. After our picnic, we wandered through the Tuileries to the Petit Palais for a special exhibit there in the afternoon, then across the Seine to head back to our hotel in the 6th.

For more info on the passages, see https://parisjetaime.com/eng/article/unusual-paris-the-covered-passages-a1801. (Given your comprehensive list, perhaps you’ve done that already)

My favorite is the beautiful Galerie Vivienne. There is a shop in there, Descourtis and Wolfe, that sells the most beautiful scarves I’ve ever seen. I’m lucky enough own three. Some are merely expensive and some are eye-wateringly expensive. A splurge, but something you’ll love forever.

We have been to most including some on the outskirts but these are IMHO the best: Passage Verdeau (9e), Passage Jouffroy (9e), Galerie Vivienne and Joffroy and Verdeu are sort of end to end as I recall and right by the Grevin wax museum. Panorama is nearby but we found it disappointing; if memory serves it is crowded and filled with stamp and coin shops and nothing interesting to us. WE go to a good coffee shop in Joffroy and have bought a painting from one of the shops (certainly no bargains in a place like this except maybe for some of the prints but my husband liked it and it was much less than so many of the pieces he had had his eye on elsewhere; it is small and hangs in our living room now). There is a fun shop that sells miniatures; lots of biological prints torn from books and poster shops; at the start there is a used clothing shop that sells by weight and an assortment of gift, candy and clothing shops. Oh and if you want a $500 umbrella hand made or a fancy expensive cane -- they have that shop.