Fire destroys Marché des Enfants Rouges, ‘coolest market in Paris’

Fire has ravaged Paris’s oldest surviving covered food market, a popular street food venue dating back to the 17th century in the Marais district of the French capital that drew thousands of locals and tourists daily.

Ariel Weil, the central Paris mayor, ​said the Marché des Enfants ‌Rouges had been “totally destroyed” in the blaze, which broke out soon after 3am. “The worst was avoided: the fire did not spread to the surrounding buildings,” he said. “But there is a lot of emotion. A lot of sadness.”

The market was established in 1615 during the reign of Louis XIII and took its name from a nearby orphanage, the Hospice des Enfants Rouges – founded in 1536 by King Francis I and his sister Marguerite de Navarre – whose child residents were habitually dressed in red.

The structure was listed as a historic monument in 1982 but narrowly escaped demolition shortly afterwards when Paris city hall, led by the then mayor Jacques Chirac, approved radical redevelopment plans that would have replaced it with an underground carpark, a council daycare facility and community centre.

A determined campaign by local residents and neighbourhood associations, backed by intellectuals, writers and artists including film-makers and photographers such as Bertrand Tavernier and Willy Ronis, who captured its traders on camera, gathered tens of thousands of signatures in protest and the plans were eventually abandoned in the mid-1990s.

Rather than demolish the building, the city undertook a six-year, 13m-franc (about €3m, or £2.5m today) renovation project, restoring the market’s historic wood and ironwork frame and glass roof. Les Enfants Rouges reopened as a food court in 2000.

While still hosting some traditional stalls including a greengrocer, butcher, cheesemonger and fishmonger, the 1,000 sq m market was mostly given over to more than a dozen stands offering French, Lebanese, Moroccan, Japanese and other street food at the counter or at casual chairs and tables.

The current Time Out tourist guide describes Les Enfants Rouges as “the coolest market in Paris”, while the authoritative US website Food&Wine ranked it fifth worldwide for street food this year after other food courts in London, Bangkok, Lyon and Mexico City.

Lt Col Pierre de Bouvier of the Paris fire service said much of the metal structure of the market had fallen in, and most of the stalls had gone up in flames. More than 150 firefighters and 50 fire trucks battled the blaze after being alerted at 4.15am, he said, adding that the cause of the fire was not yet known.