The Passage Panoramas is the oldest of the covered passages, or shopping arcades, in Paris. That’s not why I visited. The attraction was the stamp shops.

The Passage is among the earliest venues where the philatelic trade was concentrated in Paris and is still home to several philatelic shops and dealers. Unfortunately most of the proprietors were away at a stamp show and exhibition on the day I visited, during this very brief trip.

From Wikipedia:

It is one of the earliest venues of the Parisian philatelic trade, and it was one of the first covered commercial passageways in Europe. Bazaars and souks in the Orient had roofed commercial passageways centuries earlier, but the Passage de Panoramas innovated in having glazed roofing and, later on, in 1817, gas lights for illumination. It was an ancestor of the city gallerias of the 19th century and the covered suburban and city shopping malls of the 20th century.

11 boulevard Montmartre
75002 Paris

In the 2nd arrondissement between the Boulevard Montmartre to the north and the Rue Saint-Marc to the south, opposite the Passage Jouffroy and the Musée Grévin. Metro line 8, Grand Boulevards.

Plan better next time. Jeez.

Photos from 8 November 2024.