As you travel south along rue Saint-Denis the raffish air of hustle and bustle declines into sober gentility and in keeping with the prevailing tone the Passage du Grand Cerf is a tranquil and little frequented space. It was extensively renovated in 1990 and in the service of uniformity the shop fronts conform to a single architectural formula repeated ad infinitum with very few concessions to individuality. The strongest impression is of affluence and exclusivity – these shops are not welcoming to the casual browser. At 11.8m in height, this is the tallest passage in Paris and its redeeming feature is the spectacular glazed roof, supported by improbably slender ironwork and through which a wondrous amount of light is admitted. The intense luminosity, doubled and redoubled by all the reflective surfaces more than compensates for the rather sterile character of the passage.
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