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Image by Frédéric Moussaïan
Between Palais-Royal and Gare de l’Est, there are about 20 covered passages that testify to a certain era of Parisian history, when upper classes looked for elegant “streets” to walk, to shop and at the same time to be sheltered from bad weather and muddy streets without sidewalks. Mostly built in the early 19th century, these passages were the ancestors of our modern shopping centres.
Passage Brady is one of these, and probably the most exotic. Connecting Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis with Turkish restaurants to Boulevard de Strasbourg, with its theatres and African hairdressers, it’s mostly occupied by cheap Indian and Pakistani restaurants, the firsts of which were founded in the 1970′s by immigrants from Pondicherry, a former French territory in India.
Fragrances of spices and incense escape from exotic food stores and make this lively and colourful place very attractive to visitors, especially on weekdays (on Sundays, only restaurants are open and the rest of the area is less lively).
Going South on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, near the arch (Porte Saint-Denis), you will find another example of such passages. Passage du Prado, an L shape, less exotic and preserved, still has a certain charm, and is a good place if you need cheap clothes, to rent Bollywood DVDs, a cheap haircut or if you want to mix with the local crowd and try Mauritian cuisine in one of the numerous fast-food outlets of the passage.
Details about this spot (Show on map)
Passage Brady (& Prado) | Relaxing, Shopping, Restaurants (Indian) | Haircut € 6
Passage Brady | Grands Boulevards
24 hours daily
Indeed the area mentioned by Poutafly is really cool too for those who like India and Indian food more particularly.
It is closer to “La Chapelle” metro station than “Porte de la Chapelle”.
Much better idea : to go petite inde, behind gare du nord, métro porte de la chapelle. Many restaurants, mostly pondicherians/south indian and sri lankan, lots of stores, indian haircutters, indian supermarkets where you van buy foodstuffs and fresh fruit and vegetables as if you were “there”. Dishny restaurant one favourite.
One of the best places to find curry ingredients in paris, one of the minimarkets here has everything you need (spices, pastes, sauces, fresh ingedients), and (for the brits) marmite too. I’ve never found it unsafe.
There is a good movie theater there which show Bollywood movies, cult movies and so forth.
To Julie:
I’m sorry if you had a bad time there.
It is true that the Passage Brady is not that busy on Sunday, but it is still busier than many areas of Paris on a Sunday. Most stores are closed, but most restaurants are open. I added a sentence in the article in order to warn the next visitors.
Indeed, the Rue Saint-Denis (South of the arch) is an area of prostitution in Paris. It is not unsafe though.
We thought that this would be a great thing to do on a rainy Sunday. Alas, we walked through but everything was closed and it didn’t look appealing anyway. We were then surprised to wind up on a street that was filled with prostitutes, standing on the sidewalks within an arm’s reach, yuk. Sorry, but I would not recommend this area…
Went there…. wont’t go back.
[moderated]
Disgusting, dirty and dangerous. It took me three days to get back on my feet.
Nice for a walk, at your own risks for lunch