Between Palais-Royal and Gare de l’Est, there are about 20 covered passages that testify to a certain era of Parisian history, when the upper classes looked for elegant “streets” to walk on & shop at and at the same time to be sheltered from bad weather and muddy streets without sidewalks. Mostly built in the early 19th century, these arcades were the ancestors of our modern shopping centers.

Passage Brady is one of these, and probably the most exotic (while Passage Jouffroy and Passage du Grand-Cerf are probably the most elegant). Connecting Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis (the heart of Kurdish and Turkish district) to Boulevard de Strasbourg and its theatres and African hairdressers, it is mostly occupied by cheap Indian and Pakistani restaurants, the firsts of which were founded in the 1970s 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, recently repainted its arches and is now more attractive 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 few fast-food outlets of the passage.