Paris: La Samaritaine returns... sort of

The famed Paris department store La Samaritaine, just down the street from the Louvre, re-opened yesterday after 16 years of on-and-off renovation and reconstruction, but it's far from the same store that once boasted "You can find everything at La Samaritaine."

Once catering to a working-class audience, the building with its Art Deco and Art Nouveau facades, is now property of the LVMH luxury conglomerate, which has shrunk the retail space and stocked it entirely with luxury goods, while turning much of the rest of the space into offices, a hotel and even, as a concession to City Hall, 97 low-income housing units and a childcare center.

Part of the delay in the redevelopment resulted from a fight over a proposal to hide the facades behind an undulating glass wall widely derided as 'the shower curtain.' New plans were drawn up after a ruling by France's top court. Ultimately, LVMH spent about €750 million on the project.

For a loving look at the building's two classic facades and the wrap (above) that covered it during construction, see this TravelGumbo blog.