Robin Logjes is 77 years old and repeats the journey to Paris and beyond that he made in the sixties. Then with 100 guilders in your pocket, now with 100 euros. He writes daily in his column series Route 77 about everything he experiences along the way.
Inspired by my visit to the ‘Zwolse Buik’, I also want to tell you something about the ‘Parisse Buik’, or the old Halls. They were built in the mid-nineteenth century and consisted of ten market halls, built of cast iron arches and fitted with glass roofs. The complex served until the late 1960s. Then it was torn down.
The reason was clear: traffic in Paris, as in all major cities, was getting busier and the relentless stream of trucks to and from the market area was causing more and more nuisance. On Thursday, February 27, 1969, the curtain fell and the last market night was held.
I consider myself lucky to have been able to walk around there five years earlier. I found the enormous quantities of all kinds of different products especially fascinating. Long rows of stalls with only pig heads, a sight you will never forget. And eateries everywhere, almost all of them soup a l’oignon on the menu and were visited by a steady stream of hungry drivers and equally hungry stall holders. Business went on all night and I walked around until dawn. At least that solved the problem of a place to stay for that first night.
Three of the cast-iron arched structures of the old Halls have been preserved as industrial heritage. They are located in Nogent-sur-Marne, in Yokohama and in Amsterdam-Noord, in the Vliegenbos, the oldest urban forest in Amsterdam. This arch (actually two arches joined together) was donated by artist Pieter Diem on the occasion of the centenary of the forest.
On the site of De Hallen there is now a futuristic shopping center that was named Forum des Halles. Mostly underground, it actually deserves the name Belly of Paris more than the original market, which was entirely above ground. The fresh market moved to Rungis north of Paris.
This Marché International de Rungis will be the first French landing point of my trip. It is said to be the second largest fresh market in the world, after Central de Abasto in Mexico City.