Marché des Enfants-Rouges, a covered market in the Marais since 1615

The Marché des Enfants-Rouges, the oldest covered market in Paris, was created on the rue de Bretagne in 1615 at the request of Louis XIII; the historian Jacques Hillairet dates it to 1628. It was first known as the little market of the Marais, or Marché de Beauce, after the street nearby.

In 1772 it took the name of the Enfants-Rouges hospice, founded by Marguerite de Valois-Angoulême for orphans, who were dressed in red, the colour of Christian charity. In 1912 the City of Paris bought it, and it became the place where Parisians bought their milk.

Threatened in 1981, it was defended by residents, traders and heritage campaigners, and listed as a historic monument on 8 March 1982. In 1994 it escaped a car park, opposed among others by Bertrand Tavernier. Restored, it reopened gradually from 2000 with new food stalls.

On the night of 11 to 12 October 2026, a fire destroyed the hall and its iron frame entirely, across nearly 1,000 m², affecting some twenty traders. In the heart of the Marais, in the 3rd arrondissement, between the rue de Bretagne, the rue Charlot and the rue des Oiseaux, the market’s two iron gateways still stand.