Forum des Halles
If we can break away, we leave and continue westwards along Rue Aubry Boucher and Rue Berger to the new shopping centre Forum des Halles.
The Forum has been built on four floors, mainly underground, replacing the former famous food market for wholesalers, Halles, which has been transferred out to the Rungis at the Orly airport. This has been a marketplace since 1100. Forum now houses a lot of shops, including outlets of fashion houses, and cafés, in a rectangle around a sunken, open square.
On the other side of Forum des Halles is a big building site. It is planned to have there both under ground and above ground similar futuristic buildings in the style of Forum. We also see the same style in new apartment buildings around. This style could be called a waterfallism of glass and steel.
Forum itself is a lively place. Its central square attracts many people. Still, the French preserve the old when they build into the future. Where Rue Berger meets Forum, the area around the Innocents fountain has been conserved.
Saint-Eustache
Saint-Eustace & Forum des Halles
Behind the steel and glass we glimpse Saint-Eustache, which is our next stop on this walk.
The second biggest church of Paris and also one of the finest, built in 1532-1640 in Gothic style with Renaissance decorations. The west front was built much later, in 17th C. style, the south tower still missing. The noble transept façade, which we see from Forum, is Renaissance, extensively decorated and flanked by two slender staircase towers.
The interior is solemnly and extensively decorated among Gothic columns and buttresses. The gems are the organ and the acoustics. Many a concert has been held here, including first performances of music by Liszt and Berlioz. Te Deum was introduced here.
