La Samaritaine visitor guide

Visit La Samaritaine, Paris

La Samaritaine is a famous department store, at the north end of Pont Neuf (the bridge at the western end of the Ile-de-la-Cité) in the 1st arrondissement of Paris.

The name of the store comes from a fountain that stood in the location of the original La Samaritaine shop (a short distance away, on Rue du Pont Neuf) from the 16th century onwards, allowing water to be supplied to nearby properties, in particular the Louvre. The pump had this name because it featured a picture of Jesus and the Samaritan.

Discover La Samaritaine

France This Way review: although perhaps a little less impressive than Galaries Lafayette and Printemps Haussmann, the La Samaritaine department store is still very impressive and you should go in to see the balconies and the glass ceiling...and do some shopping!

History of La Samaritaine

The business, started in 1865, outgrew its original premises and a decision was made to open a much larger shop, in the current location. The La Samaritaine department store that we see today opened here in 1917, with the buildings in the styles of art deco and art nouveau, very modern at that time.

As with Au Bon Marché, which was already a well established department store by this time, La Samaritaine featured numerous small individual boutiques brought together in one building, an idea that is still used today

The shop struggled financially in the second half of the 20th century, in particular after the 1970s, and was eventually closed in 2005 so that it could be restructured and modernised. The works took longer than expected, in part because of COVID, and the shop reopened, substantially smaller than the original, in 2021.

Before its decline La Samaritaine was slightly larger than both Galeries Lafayette and Printemps Haussmann, but is now only about one third of their size.

Visiting La Samaritaine

By lucky chance, the road that originally entered a tunnel close to the store was closed, which enabled the area around the store to be made more attractive for pedestrians, so it is now easy to wander around the outside of the building admiring the early 20th century architecture.

Inside, as part of the renovations, the central area of the store, which incudes the grand staircase, the balconies, the glass ceiling and the painted enamel decorations were all restored, and these are now the highlights of a visit (except for shopping of course).

These elements combine together to create a very impressive centre to the shop - the wrought ironwork in the glass ceiling and the several levels of gilded balconies are both extremely well renovated, and the frescoes on the wall between the two are quite remarkable.

When you visit La Samaritaine today you will find that luxury goods are the main thing sold - cosmetics, upmarket clothes, perfumes and so on, by brands such as Gucci, Dior, Prada, Balenciaga, Givenchy. This is very different to the original store, which tried to supply everything possible, from nuts and bolts to pet food. The change is hardly surprising since the store was sold to LVMH before its renovation, and LVMH (full name LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE) is the largest luxury goods company in the world.

The closest metro station to La Samaritaine is the Pont Neuf station on metro line 7.

Attractions nearby

The most visited attractions close to La Samaritaine are in the Ile-de-la-Cité and include the Cathedral Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, two of the most visited sites in Paris, as well as the Conciergerie.

You can find more travel ideas in the Paris region guide.

To make travel arrangements to visit La Samaritaine see HERE