Le BHV: Retail Heaven in the Middle of Paris

It’s not the biggest or the oldest, but it’s still hella fun

The ‘rear’ entrance of the BHV. Photo by author.

I even like saying it in French (and my French is not brilliant). To render the sound phonetically for anglophones, it’s ‘Bay Ash Vay.’

It is the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, so named because it is across the rue de Rivoli from Paris’s grand city hall (pictured below on a rainy October evening).

L’Hôtel de Ville, Paris. Photo by author.

The BHV started out as the Bazar Parisien, and then became the Bazar Napoléon in 1855 — supposedly after its founder, Xavier Ruel, saved the Empress Josephine from disaster in a runaway horses event. (The Bon Marché across the river is several years older, so the BHV loses in the ancient-ness contest.)

In deference to French sensibilities after the fall of Napoléon III, the store was renamed the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville — thus the BHV.

For a long time the BHV was an extraordinarily diverse hardware/homewares store, and there is a hilarious tribute to the BHV in Adam Gopnik’s delightful memoir, Paris to the Moon (2000). (In fact, now that I’ve invoked the book, I realize I need to reread it. He is a wonderful…