Place du Caire

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This is the place du Caire, a tiny little open space about a kilometre north of the Forum des Halles, in the middle of the Paris garment district. It was named (after Cairo, in Egypt) at a time when Parisians were enchanted by Napoléon’s adventures in Egypt; several other surrounding streets carry similar names. In addition, the building that you can see in this photograph has a kind of pseudo-Egyptian architecture to it that was considered very cool at the time (kind of a French version of Mann’s Egyptian Theater in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, in style at least).

This is a really boring picture of what is essentially a really boring place. I include it here because it has a slight claim to fame: Three hundred years ago, this was the center of that area of Paris that had been derisively nicknamed the Cour des Miracles (“Court of Miracles”), mentioned by Victor Hugo in his novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Way back then, this part of Paris had a lot of hideouts for all the various scum of the city—thieves, con artists, and the like—and this particular spot was one of the most famous among them. It’s pretty well hidden (try finding it sometime), and even the authorities of the era stayed away (until 1667 or so, when it was finally cleaned up). It got its nickname from the fact that beggars who faked various infirmities during the day (in order to make more money) came here at night and set aside their crutches, bandages, and other props for the evening, thereby effecting a “miraculous cure” of their “handicaps” every night! Miracles indeed!

Today, this area is extremely busy with the garment trade during business hours. All of the people you see standing around in the picture are workers in the rag trade who spend the whole day moving stock back and forth, loading and unloading, etc. It’s routine to see people walking around with racks full of fancy clothing in this area. You might even be wearing something made in this neighborhood yourself, if it is from Paris; there are many sweatshops, small manufacturers, wholesale outlets, and a few retail outlets in this part of town.

Outside of business hours, this area is much more seedy, with prostitutes overflowing from the wicked rue Saint-Denis nearby into these otherwise-deserted streets. The prostitutes are harmless enough, if a bit tacky in their appearance, but some of the people they seem to attract are pretty low life. It’s nowhere near as bad as it was when miracles happened, but it’s pretty dumpy.

In the Egyptian-style building in the background, you can see the entrance to the passage du Caire, a tiny tunnel filled with small-scale garment businesses, of which I have a picture, if you are interested.

Photographed on November 8, 1999.