Long known as the central food market for Paris, Les Halles began as a dry goods market, outside what was then the city, before ending up as its central food market.
A small market by a graveyard
By the time the market of Les Halles was shut down in 1969, it had long been the main food market of Paris, a teeming complex set squarely at the centre of the city.
But it began as a very different market, outside a much smaller Paris, in what were called ‘the Little Fields’ (Champeaux), a name which survives in that of the rue des Petits Champs (‘the street of the Little Fields’).
In the 11th century, a cemetery there became the nucleus of a market, initially a textile market which also hosted money-changers. A bishop soon claimed authority over this market (and, not incidentally, its revenue), but in 1137 shared this with Louis VI, as secular authority increasingly displaced ecclesiastical authority.
An ‘old market’ existed at the Grève (now mainly the square before Paris’ City Hall). In 1141, Louis VII sold this to the local burghers, giving the market at the Champeaux more official importance. In 1181, Philip August transferred a major fair to the new market; others would surrender their privileges to it.
Two years later, he took over the Champeaux entirely and had two market halls – halles – built to protect the cloth sold there. Over time, the market would be known by that name. The rights paid by vendors became an important source of revenue for the king. Soon he surrounded all of Paris with walls, including the market, which brought it within the city; over time the market would find itself at its centre.
A third hall soon followed, then others, many for textiles and other dry goods, some specifically for the products of certain regions. Saint Louis was the first to build two halls specifically for fish.
The first food
Even early on, the market attracted food vendors. In 1270, an official assigned stalls, no doubt outside the main halls, to those who sold ’butter, eggs, cheese, garlic, onions, cabbage, beets and other greens’. But in the next century, a visitor’s detailed description of the ‘Halles of the Champeaux’ describes a wealth of dry goods – fine cloth, ‘superb leathers’, combs and other ornaments for the head, belts, purses, gloves, necklaces, etc. – with no mention of food. The overall impression is of a luxury emporium or department store – or a bazaar. Biollay in fact suggests that the very idea of a large market at the heart of a city was inspired by the Eastern bazaars.
Some food outlets gained official status, even though they weren’t assigned specific market halls. A poultry market, held only on Saturdays, was authorised by the 13th century. By the 14th, official bread markets existed, one possibly in the Wheat hall. It was common in municipalities across France for bakers to be limited to selling bread in their own shops and in the local central market.
At the start of the 15th century, a diarist noted the prices of some foods at what was now simply ‘the Halles’: ‘wheat and flour became so expensive that the sexter of wheat was worth… in the Halles of Paris, xxx francs’; ‘a dozen loaves of bread were given for XX sols at the Halles of Paris’; ‘cheeses... were piled as high as a man at the Halles and were given for II blancs or three...' No market hall then existed for cheese. He noted that a hall was built for butchers - Parisian butchers were now obliged to sell there.
Food sales then made their way in incrementally, even though most of the actual buildings were dedicated to dry goods.
In the second half of the 15th century, a ‘halle’ or sometimes a market of greens began to appear in records. Biollay knew Les Halles primarily as a food market, writing in 1881 that ‘it became with the fish hall the core of the current Halles’.
More food, more crowds
From 1551 to 1572, Les Halles were entirely rebuilt for the first time, but with no increased focus on food despite records showing its growing importance. Documents from 1625 and 1675 list sellers of a long list of foodstuffs, including eggs, butter, tripe, fish, shrimp and frogs, turnips, beans, peas, onions, cabbage and other greens, and a variety of fruits. The market now also hosted a variety of food-related services, including taverns, roasters, frog-skinners and a press for verjuice (typically made from young grapes).
The food trade brought in increased traffic, as noted in 1672 in an official text:
the inhabitants of our good city of Paris, and those who are obliged to come on market days to bring wheat, bread and fish and other items there, suffer great inconvenience, because all these things are side by side and sold in the same place, of which the market hall of wool and linen cloth occupies the greatest part, causing the avenues to be so obstructed, that they normally find themselves blocked, and it is impossible to approach.
This complaint hints at how spontaneous, even anarchic, the emerging dominance of food in the market was. Clearly, even if more official halls existed for various foods, the layout of the market still implied a focus on textiles. But increasingly, in practice, it was food that drew the greatest and the most regular crowds.
Officials did not ignore these developments; Napoleon had hoped to unite the various markets before events outstripped those plans.
Ultimately, it was only in 1847 that a new overall structure was ordered and 1857 before it was completed. The new uniform pavilions were designed by Baltard to host, primarily, a food market.
In 1874, when Zola wrote a novel set in the market, he called it The Belly of Paris. And so it remained for almost a century.
In a city full of markets, Les Halles was the grandest and drew crowds not only for its dizzying array of foods, but for its neighbouring restaurants and other pleasures, and now, for the magnificence of Baltard’s glass and iron pavilions.
