Tight-Lipped

No truck could make its way down the passage du Caire. Hidden behind tall apartment buildings, it had been designed to keep vehicles at bay at a time when horses were the city’s only means of locomotion. The oldest of the capital’s covered passages, it owed its name to Bonaparte since its construction had coincided with the young general’s expedition down the Nile. The resulting vogue for all things Egyptian explained the stone heads of Oriental deities overlooking its main entrance and the frieze of tomb-style paintings that ran above them. Having opened in 1798 full of fashionable boutiques it had changed character by the middle of the nineteenth century, becoming known for its print shops and engravers. When the Sentier took on its current form it evolved once again. Now, with its cracked tarmac paving and grimy glass roofing, it was home to the bottom feeders of the textile trade.