Travel Tips

The boulevard is not dedicated at the Italian People. It is so called because the Italian Theater was here on the 17° century.

It is situated between the stations Richelieu Drouot and Opera.

Walk on the street : head office of banks, cinemas, coffee shops, restaurants (rather cheap), shops, FNAC (specialized department store : records, video, computers), Drugstore (not a chemistry but a sort of bazaar), Lancel (near Opera), Photo Service.

An Idea : go at the corner of Bd des Italiens & rue Laffitte and have a look on the Sacré Coeur of Montmartre.

Rue Laffitte is rather narrow and you have a sight seing on Eglise Notre Dame de Lorette at the end of the Street and above (and far) you see the Sacré Coeur. It is very nice especially by night.

The architect was chosen after a competition in which the famous Violet le Duc (the man who remodeled Carcassonne) was involved. The winner was Charles Garnier, a young and completly unknown architect.
The building lasted 15 years and was finished on 1875, 2 years after the arson of the previous opera which was rue Lepelletier.
A novellist, Gaston Leroux, imagined the basement which is on a ground water was the home of the Gost of Opera. He was in love of a female singer and kidnaped her.

Several giants were spread in Paris in 1998 to illustrate the different parts of the world and their people.

This one inhabited the Opera Place.

All the giants gathered on the Champs Elysées after the final match.

An American said me : Brazil might win. I answered : In France, when we organize it is to win.

There are 2 passages on the both sides of Boulevard Montmartre : Jouffroy and Panoramas.

They run into the buildings and are bordered by odd shops : walking sticks,collectible stamps, old post cards, eastern furniture, toys, pastry. I recommend a long stop at "Pain d'Epice" (see my shopping page), a store specialized in tiny toys, doll house, music box.

Beside the Passage Jouffroy, there is the Musée Grévin (wax museum).

In front of the Passage Jouffroy, on the opposite footpath, the Passage des Panoramas with mainly restaurants and collectible stamps shops.

Stop at this shop completly devoted to the walking sticks. No umbrella there.
Some are real art works.

On the Blvd des Italiens, on the left when one walks in direction of Opera : the Passage des Princes.
It is devoted to the toys.
But in February on Saturday morning, a day of transport strike, there is nobody.
Have a look at the glass roof.

When I was an employee working rue Laffitte, I often went after lunch to the auction hall nearby to see the incredible odds and ends which were sold there.
Everything can be sold there : masterpieces of art, ancient furniture, hugly things, tea spoons, etc...
But during the auction do not move the hand or the arm if you do not want to buy something.