“Dawn came slowly, a soft grey that spread watercolour tints everywhere. The piles of greenery were like waves, a river of green flowing along the roadway like an autumn torrent; and they assumed delicate, shadowy hues-pale violet, milky pink, and greenish yellow, all the soft light hues that turn the sky into a canopy of shot silk as the sun rises... At the intersection in the Rue des Halles, mountains of cabbages were piled up...” Émile Zola, The Belly of Paris

• Introduction
• the medieval market square
• structures
• market hall as public space
• the city in transition
• the global city
• sites of contestation
• the ailing city
• reflection
• market halls in transition