Today I needed to visit a big Paris department store for a story I’m writing and chose Galeries Lafayette. Mon Dieu! It’s a fairytale city of shopping in a cathedral setting. As you approach, the building rises up like the Titanic.
Actually, it’s three buildings that swallow up a few blocks. Outside there are street vendors hugging the walls, selling all sorts of trinkets and doo-dads. I never made it past the main building. A shopper would have to camp out for a few weeks to cover the whole terrain. Not only do they sell everything you can imagine, but they have an extensive selection in each category of merchandise. They should offer GPS devices at the Welcome Counter, because it’s entirely possible to get lost here. Instead they feature a command center with maps in many languages, just like at the Louvre.
The building is composed of 9 floors (7 above the entry floor and one below) of stacked rings surrounding a vast central open area crowned by an enormous stained glass cupola. Each floor ‘ring’ is punctuated by art nouveau arcades resembling balconies in a grand opera house. You expect to see top-hatted gents and bejeweled and gowned ladies applauding tenors and sopranos. Only instead of opera divas, high-end cosmetic displays occupy downstage.
The cupola is breathtaking, like looking out through a giant’s jewelbox.
If you can take your eyes off the stained glass, a shopper can find all of life’s necessities. There’s a bank, a travel agency, ATM’s, hair salons, spa, souvenir store, 14 restaurants (including a champagne bar, Maxim’s and a special restaurant for kids), full bridal services and registry, a huge floor of children’s wear, baby registry, post office, fashion shows, shoe repair, computers/electronics, a well-stocked bookstore, and everything from furs to furniture. Not to mention the complete gourmet shop. A person could live well indeed inside Galeries Lafayette.
I finished my day in this consumer cathedral by visiting their little exhibit on the history of corsets. In case you missed it:
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