It is a day that Paris has been waiting for for over three decades. After 15 years of closure and six years of renovations, the famous former La Samaritaine Department Stores, one of the symbolic places of the French capital, registered in the collective imagination of generations of French and beyond, reopen their doors on June 19. A gigantic construction site, conducted to the sound of millions and among a thousand bureaucratic ups and downs by LVMH, the luxury giant owned by Bernard Arnault. To restore the complex to its former glory, the French tycoon, one of the richest men in the world, paid out 750 million euros.
At the end of the nineteenth century the Samaritaine was counted among the so-called
"cathedrals of modern commerce".
Words coined at the time by Emile Zola, who thus defined the advent of the department stores that changed the face of Paris: Le Bon Marche ', but also Le Printemps, les Galeries Lafayette, the BHV, and the Samaritaine, in fact, founded in 1870 by Ernest Cognacq and Marie-Louise Jay.
With around
600 brands under one roof, including big names in Made in France
but not only, this sort of immense ocean liner partly overlooking the Seine aims to become a new treasure trove of the French art de vivre, but with a touch also very Italian. Suffice it to say that the first Parisian branch of the famous Caffé Cova in Via Monte Napoleone in Milan will be built.
A return to life, after more than a year of closures linked to the pandemic that have deeply affected Paris. But the new 'Samaritan woman' of the 21st century will not be dedicated only to shopping. Of the 70,000 square meters, 'only' 20,000 will house shops. The remaining fifty thousand meters will include, among other things, a super-luxury hotel of the Cheval Blanc chain with breathtaking views of the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, a panoramic swimming pool centered on the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, a beauty-center, a Spa , restaurants.
The project also includes 96 social housing, 15,000 m2 of offices as well as a nursery with 80 places. Jewels of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, the four buildings that make up the complex nestled between the Seine and the very central rue de Rivoli - a neighborhood in full revival, with the recent inauguration of the Pinault Foundation, the Galerie Italienne by Alessandro Pron and Raphaella Riboud-Seydoux, and the long-awaited conversion of the historic Post Offices of the Rue du Louvre - have undergone a thorough renovation.
Particular attention was paid to the protection of the elements of the time, such as the mosaics, the large glass vault that has nothing to envy to the Grand Palais, or the stairs and wrought iron balustrades. The anonymous facade on Rue de Rivoli was instead covered with a modern transparent surface that reflects the Haussmanian architecture of the end of the 19th century in a sort of dialogue between past and present.
For LVMH, which bought the complex in 2001, things have not always been easy, starting with obtaining permits from the municipality. A puzzle, between ties and bureaucratic ties, which lasted ten years only for administrative procedures, until the long-awaited start of the works, in 2015. As for the name, La Samaritaine, it derives from the one with which an ancient hydraulic pump was baptized that during the reign of Henry IV was placed right nearby, under the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris and a centuries-old strategic hub in the heart of the capital. (HANDLE).