Galeries Lafayette

I am exhausted after a busy day walking round Paris.

Visited Galeries Lafayette for the first time today. The store was jam-packed with customers. I thought there was a recession?

Galeries Lafayette was founded at the end of the 19th century. Every year, millions of shoppers visit its main store at the Boulevard Haussmann, a ten story building crowned with a magnificent glass and iron dome.

In December 1893 cousins Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn opened a haberdashery (a store selling sewing material), which was called 'Aux Galeries Lafayette'. The name of the store referred to its original address at rue La Fayette, at walking distance from the Opera Garnier. They soon started to produce and sell their own fashion.

In 1905 Bader commissioned French architect Georges Chedanne with the redesign of the newly purchased buildings, a process that was completed in 1907. A few years later the complex was expanded into the structure that we know today by Ferdinand Chanut.

The most striking feature of the building is the fantastic Art Nouveau glass dome with its beautiful stained glass and wrought iron, which was created by Chanut. The dome gave the building the nickname 'Magasin Coupole' (domed store). Must also visit the Cupola in Printemps this week.