Visiting Printemps Haussmann, The Parisian Department Store

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A local’s guide to Printemps Haussmann, a beautiful department store in Paris near the Grands Boulevards with Art Deco stairs and a free rooftop!

If you are a shopping enthusiast in Paris, you will inevitably spend some time at Printemps Haussmann.

Located in the heart of the 9th arrondissement near the Grands Boulevards, it is more than a simple department store.

Like the Samaritaine and Galeries Lafayette, it is a historical monument and an architectural masterpiece which features several different architectural styles that make a visit much more interesting beyond just your purchases.

Visiting Printemps Haussmann, The Parisian Department Store

Printemps Haussmann is not just a department store.

It is also a listed historical monument founded in 1865, just a few years after the city’s covered passages, where people used to stroll before a theater play or take shelter from the rain while window shopping.

These covered passages, like Passage des Panoramas, Jouffroy, or Verdeau, or even Galerie Vivienne, are the ancestors of the 19th-century department stores, mostly built between the 1820s and 1840s.

In 1865, Jules Jaluzot, a former employee of Le Bon Marché – which is much older than Printemps Haussmann – founded Printemps with his wife Augustine.

The name is symbolic of renewal and freshness, both in shopping and in everyday life, as the Chaussée d’Antin district was in full development at the time.

Department stores were founded not only as novelty shops, which we see in detail in books like Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise, but also as beautiful places, symbols of commercial and industrial evolution, where one could also stay to chat or have tea.

The history of Printemps is not a walk in the park; two major fires, in 1881 and 1921, forced the store to reinvent itself.

Three architects worked on the reconstruction of Printemps: Paul Sédille after 1881, as well as René Binet and later Georges Wybo after the 1921 fire.

In 1888, Printemps was the first of the Paris department stores, before Galeries Lafayette, La Samaritaine, or BHV, to be equipped with electric lighting.

It is also one of the department stores where you find both Art Nouveau and Art Deco – Art Nouveau in the curves and ornaments, and Art Deco notably in the grand staircase of Printemps.

This department store is composed of three main buildings: Printemps de la Femme, Printemps de l’Homme, and Printemps Beauté/Maison/Enfant.

And all around these buildings, you can find historical gems of sculpture and ornamentation.

For example, on the 6th floor of Printemps de la Femme, there is a monumental dome designed by master glassmaker Brière in 1923, made of thousands of glass fragments that were dismantled and hidden in Clamart during WWII and reassembled in 1973.

The facade, with its statues representing the four seasons sculpted by Henri Chapu, testifies to the luxury of the Belle Époque, coupled with golden mosaics and wrought iron details.

Printemps Haussmann is a perfect place to admire a transition between eras.

It’s a true bridge between Art Nouveau and Art Deco, as I said earlier – the floral Art Nouveau of that dome, alongside the geometric rigueur of its grand staircase and its play of mirrors.

When you have finished admiring these architectural elements, don’t forget to stop by 7e Ciel, a huge space dedicated to vintage and circular fashion, illuminated by the glass roofs of the top floor.

Just outside 7e Ciel, by the way, there is a free rooftop from which you can admire the Eiffel Tower.

Then, if you are a fan of fine food, you will find a food hall on the 7th and 8th floors of Printemps de l’Homme with tasting counters and French gastronomy products.