More news from the Champs-Elysées...

In my latest post I talked about the rather newly opened “Apple Store” on the Champs-Elysées. Even more newly opened is an additional location of the “Galeries Lafayette” department stores. I already wrote about this building a few years ago, when it was still occupied by a “Virgin Megastore” – closed in 2013, see here.

The building dates from the 1930’s and was for many years a bank. The architect was André Arfvidson, who created a number of remarkable buildings, including one I talked about in a previous post.

A smaller part of the Champs-Elysées building is occupied by a “Monoprix” store – “Monoprix” used to be part of the “Galeries Lafayette” family. If you want to see some traces of the building’s original banking activities, you must visit the “Monoprix” part of the building, where you can find the impressive vault opening, through which you could walk during the “Virgin Megastore” times … and find books to buy on the other side. Now there is a mirror and you cannot pass.

Coming back to the newly opened “Galereis Lafayette” part of the building, once again, like with the new Champs-Elysées “Apple Store” (see my preceding post), I feel that a good architectural job has been done, a good mixture of new and old. The architect is the Bjarke Ingels “BIG” group, also involved in a future “Two World Trade Center”, the new “Google” headquarters… and a lot more.

Looking at the ceilings, you can see all the pipes and cables… all white, clean … until further.