A Réaumur

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In yesterday's post on Paris's plaque obsession, I mentioned that the city makes it easy to recognize its long and storied history. But when your history is as rich as Paris's, it's hard to get to every little detail. For instance, on my way home from the library most days, I pass by this incredible building that takes up an entire block of Rue Réaumur:

Inspired by Invisible Paris, a blog that explores the unsung marvels of the city, I decided to uncover the history of this building. My sleuthing started with a single clue, found on the tower on the southeastern (and most visible) corner of the building.

This isn't much of a clue, since "à Réaumur" really only tells you that you're on the street that the building sits on. But thanks to the marvels of Google, a tiny bit of sleuthing led me to discover that "À Réaumur" was a big department store that opened in 1897 as a competitor to Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, Le Bon Marché, BHV, and Le Samaritaine. The name seems to be a jeu de mots - a pun - since it sounds just like "Arrêt au mur," or "stop at the wall." Not a very funny pun, I guess.

À Réaumur specialized in ready-to-wear clothing and catalogue sales, supplied the French Army during WWII, and won all kinds of awards at various World's Fairs and International Expos over the years. (All this from an amazing blog that also publishes images of old catalogues and gives lots of details on the store's history.)

The building itself, designed by F. Constant-Bernard, was constructed with great speed and has housed clothing boutiques and offices since the closing of À Réaumur in 1960. My favorite aspects of the building are the little architectural details - the spiderweb-like metal braces holding up the awning, for instance.

That wasn't too hard. Maybe I should move to the next mystery to solve: what's the story behind the delightfully baroque building right across the street from À Réaumur, which refers to one "F. Potin" and now houses a Monoprix?

Any ideas on where to start?