Les Halles was the belly of Paris — the wholesale food market that fed the city for eight hundred years until it was pulled out in 1971. The market's gone, but the streets around it still trade in food, and rue Montorgueil is the proof. Under three kilometres, best in the morning when the produce is out.
Start at the top of Montorgueil and walk down its pedestrian length: fromageries, fishmongers, café tables across the cobbles. Stohrer, at number 51, has been baking since 1730 — go in for the painted ceiling and leave with one thing. At the foot of the street stands Saint-Eustache, Gothic and enormous, with an organ to match; slip in for the scale.
The middle of the walk is the Bourse de Commerce, the round old grain exchange now holding the Pinault contemporary collection under its glass dome — shut Tuesdays, so mind the day. Past the Canopée, the divisive glass roof over where the market once stood, then loop back up rue Tiquetonne for the quieter lanes. Châtelet takes you out from there.
