Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
There is an old market in Paris. People buy food there. The market is very, very old. It opens in the year 1615.
On Monday a fire starts at three in the morning. The fire is very big. Firefighters come with water.
The market is gone now. The roof falls down. Nothing is left inside.
No houses next to it burn. Nobody is hurt. The city will find new places for the food sellers.
- market
- a place where people buy and sell food and goods
- old
- having existed for a long time
- fire
- the hot light and flames that burn things
- morning
- the early part of the day
- firefighter
- a person whose job is to stop fires
- water
- the clear liquid we drink and use to stop fires
- roof
- the top cover of a building
- seller
- a person who sells things
Level 2 - Elementary
Paris has lost its oldest covered food market. A fire was first reported at around 3am on Monday at the Marche des Enfants Rouges in the Marais district, and by morning the building was gone.
Firefighters used nine hoses, two of them high powered, to bring the blaze under control. The metal structure of the market partially collapsed. Lieutenant Colonel Pierre de Bouvier told reporters that the market was completely destroyed and that nothing remains of the covered market.
The market had been trading since 1615, which means it was 411 years old. Its name comes from the red clothes worn by orphans at a nearby hospital until 1772. The building was listed as a historical monument in 1982, and this year Food & Wine magazine ranked it fifth in the world for street food.
Ariel Weil, the mayor of central Paris, said that the worst had been avoided because no neighbouring buildings were affected. Authorities said they would find temporary locations so that the traders can keep working. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
- covered market
- a market inside a building with a roof
- district
- an area of a city with its own name and character
- hose
- a long flexible tube used to carry water
- blaze
- a large and strong fire
- collapse
- to fall down suddenly, usually inwards
- orphan
- a child whose parents have died
- monument
- a building or place protected for its historical value
- temporary
- lasting only for a limited time
Level 3 - Intermediate
The Marche des Enfants Rouges survived the reign of Louis XIII, the French Revolution, two world wars and several waves of redevelopment. It did not survive Monday morning. A fire reported at around 3am tore through the covered market in the Marais, and by daylight the oldest food market in Paris had effectively ceased to exist.
Firefighters deployed nine hoses, two of them high powered, to stop the blaze from reaching the dense housing that surrounds the site. The market's metal framework partially collapsed inward. Lieutenant Colonel Pierre de Bouvier was blunt in his assessment: the market was completely destroyed, and nothing remains of the covered market. No casualties have been reported, and the cause is under investigation.
The loss is measured in centuries rather than euros. The market has traded on the same spot since 1615, taking its name from the red garments worn by children at an orphanage that stood nearby until 1772. France recognised the site as a historical monument in 1982, and its tight lanes of Moroccan, Japanese and West African food stalls turned it into one of the city's most visited eating destinations. Food & Wine magazine placed it fifth in the world for street food this year.
Ariel Weil, the mayor of central Paris, framed the morning in terms of what had not happened. The worst has been avoided, he said, noting that the fire was contained and that no neighbouring buildings were affected. Authorities have promised temporary premises so the traders can continue to earn, and officials have raised the possibility that a rebuilt market might eventually rise in a different part of the city.
- reign
- the period during which a monarch rules
- redevelopment
- the rebuilding or renewal of an urban area
- deploy
- to put resources or personnel into action
- framework
- the structural skeleton that supports a building
- casualty
- a person killed or injured in an accident or attack
- garment
- an item of clothing
- stall
- a small open stand from which goods are sold
- premises
- the building and land a business occupies
Level 4 - Advanced
Cities keep their continuity in unglamorous places, and few kept it longer than the Marche des Enfants Rouges. Trading on the same ground in the Marais since 1615, the covered market outlasted the Bourbon monarchy, the Revolution, Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris and the twentieth century's two catastrophes. A fire reported at roughly 3am on Monday required only a few hours to end that run.
The operational account is terse. Firefighters brought nine hoses to bear, two of them high powered, and held the blaze within the market's footprint while the dense residential fabric of the third arrondissement pressed on all sides. The metal framework buckled and partially collapsed inward. Lieutenant Colonel Pierre de Bouvier offered no softening language: the market was completely destroyed, and nothing remains of the covered market. No casualties have been reported, and investigators have not yet established a cause.
What burned was not merely a structure but an unusually legible piece of social history. The market takes its name from the red garments worn by children at the orphanage that stood beside it until 1772, a detail that has outlived the institution itself by two and a half centuries. Listed as a monument historique in 1982, the site had in recent decades reinvented itself as a compressed culinary atlas, its narrow passages lined with Moroccan, Japanese and West African kitchens, and Food & Wine ranked it fifth in the world for street food this year. The commercial loss is substantial; the civic loss resists accounting.
Ariel Weil, mayor of central Paris, chose the counterfactual as consolation. The worst has been avoided, he said, pointing to a fire contained without damage to adjoining buildings in a quarter where a wider spread would have been ruinous. The city has committed to temporary premises so that displaced traders are not driven out of business while decisions are made, and officials have floated the prospect of reconstruction elsewhere in Paris. Whether a market rebuilt on different ground can inherit four centuries of accumulated meaning is a question the Marais will spend years answering.
- continuity
- the unbroken persistence of something over a long period
- outlast
- to continue to exist for longer than something else
- terse
- brief and to the point, sometimes to the point of bluntness
- footprint
- the ground area a building occupies
- buckle
- to bend or give way under pressure or heat
- legible
- able to be read or understood clearly, used here of history
- counterfactual
- a statement about what would have happened otherwise
- displaced
- forced out of a usual place of work or residence
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