Félix Potin - Rue de Rennes

A couple of days ago, Adam made a post about a building in Paris, which intrigued him (and which intrigued us all after having read his post). The architect was Paul Auscher (1866-1932).

Auscher was later responsible for a number of buildings in Paris, one of which is in a very striking Art Nouveau style – obviously the only one by him in this style - and using concrete as basic material. Most Parisians have seen this building, have probably even been visiting it, perhaps not all of us paying too much attention. You can find it on Rue de Rennes (no. 140). (You can read more about it – in French - on the excellent blog « Paris 1900 ».)
It was originally built for Félix Potin in 1904. Félix Potin was for about a century a leading retailer chain, especially in the Paris region. Everybody went to “Félix Potin” to buy “anything”. Potin and his successors created some big department stores, like this one, and around 1950 there were some 1200 Félix Potin mini markets in the Paris region. The chain was later taken over, obviously not well managed ... and today nothing is left, except some buildings. After Félix Potin this building has been occupied by Monoprix, Tati .... and today Zara, Spanish competitor to GAP, H&M.... The interior has changed completely, but fortunately the exterior has well survived a number of restorations, including a recent one (there is office space to rent).

I mentioned another remarkable Félix Potin building from 1910, situated on Rue Réaumur, in a previous post.









The top photo has been taken from in front of the only real skyscraper within the Paris borders, Tour Montparnasse, looking down Rue de Rennes. You can see the tower of Félix Potin at the left.
The Félix Potin building is in sharp contrast with its neighbour, the almost only recent building on this street, which is one of several FNAC* shops in Paris.

(I'm sorry for somewhat dark pictures, taken a cloudy January afternoon.)

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*/ FNAC is a leading chain in France for audio, books, records, DVDs, computer software and hardware, televisions, photographic equipment.... with more than 200 stores, mostly in France, but some 60 abroad, belonging to PPR (Pinault).