Impasse des Peintres

The Impasse des Peintres is a historic dead-end alley in Paris's 2nd arrondissement, located between numbers 112 and 114 on Rue Saint-Denis. Less than fifty meters long and just two meters wide, the narrow passage winds its way between residential buildings four to five stories high. The alley is older than the fourteenth century and originally lay outside the city walls of Philip Augustus, near the first Saint-Denis gate. Over the centuries it has gone by various names, including Rue de l'Arbalète, Ruelle Sans-Chef, and Ruelle des Étuves. The present name most likely comes from the Gilles le Peintre family, who owned an inn here in the fourteenth century, or from the painter Guyon Ledoux, who had a house built on this corner in 1542. On this quiet side street, you can get an authentic glimpse of the medieval layout of Paris.