Retailers bringing cartloads of tree branches from Les Halles. Paris, April 1941.

Source:
Paris en Images, copyright LAPI / Roger-Viollet (LAP-2224):
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Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 25

Les Halles

I normally returned home between four and five in the morning by way of unrecognizable streets, sleeping and deserted.

Sometimes I passed by les Halles and I still recall my surprise when I saw the men pulling the carts that carried foodstuffs; I noticed their weather-beaten faces and especially their eyes which seemed to be covered with a transparent and impermeable film, an indicator of beings unaccustomed to reflection; most of the prostitutes had these eyes.

I imagined that Chinese coolies and Roman slaves had the same face, the same opaque stare, for in fact they led an identical existence. [87-88]