Back to the future for the most famous post office in France.
The regulars of the rue du Louvre must have believed in an hallucination when passing in front of number 50, Wednesday morning.
Light, people who are busy inside… No doubt, the office is wide open.
Many had become accustomed to the move of this agency to temporary premises in rue Étienne-Marcel.
Yet Michelle, a longtime resident, barely veils her emotion at the sight of the staff inside.
"It's nice to see it open again.
And above all, they kept the facade.
»
Inaugurated with great fanfare this Tuesday with the presence of Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, and Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, the new agency has allure.
It must be said that the architect in charge of the project, Dominique Perrault succeeded in making something new out of something old.
The mythical vaulted façade and its clocks are still there.
But a few steps inside are enough to see that places have changed.
Formerly a gigantic structure dedicated to the primary functions of the post office: reception, administration and sorting of mail, the face of the building has been transformed.
“The place was built in 1888 as a large postal distribution factory.
With the scarcity of mail, we had to adapt,” says Benoît Unal, operations manager of La Poste Louvre for the Poste Immo group.
A crossroads open to Parisians
No more postage, the 32,000 m2 building has been redesigned according to a mixed program.
“La Poste wanted to make it a crossroads, open to Parisians,” explains the director.
Rare urban island of the capital, the place which was completely closed is now available to visitors.
No less than 5 passages give access to the Marty courtyard, this interior courtyard which has been offered direct access to the sky with the cutting of the roof, adding luminosity.
“Especially since the mail slides that descended from the floors are no longer there.
This gives air to the courtyard, but also to the floors, which are entirely glazed”, specifies Benoît Unal.
A way for the occupants to enjoy their new vacation spot.
And new kids, there's a bunch of them.
In addition to the post office, thirteen businesses, selected for their “customer experience” share 2,150 m2 of shopping center on the ground floor.
"We wanted lively places, not exhibition activities where no one comes", assures Benoît Unal.
They share this level with a police station overlooking rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, a daycare center and a future study room of 250 m2.
Offices, rooftop and social housing
The first level is intended for offices and already hosts the BPE (private bank belonging to the Postal Bank) and the start-up Voodoo and its 200 employees. Finally, the third and last level hosts a 5-star hotel with 82 rooms, the Madame Rêve, which offers its customers a green terrace offering a 360° view of the district, allowing you to see the Saint-Eustache church, the Sacré-Coeur or the Center Pompidou. Note the presence of photovoltaic panels that heat the hotel's water and plant walls, watered by a rain recovery system. “There are only three levels, but the heights under ceiling, from 9 to 6 meters allow the creation of mezzanines which doubles the usable surface”, comments Benoît Unal.
At the corner of rue du Louvre and rue Etienne-Marcel, an entrance will soon lead to the 17 social housing units that the building will accommodate.
Initially planned to be available at the opening, an incident during the works postponed their opening until next April.
Entirely fashioned on a metal structure by the architectural theorist Julien Guadet (the only work he would produce in his entire life), the building had been largely covered with a layer of concrete to give it a more urban.
Dominique Perrault set out to rework this style to purify it and bring out the metal pillars that support the entire structure.
He succeeded in creating a feeling of vertical progression starting from the mineral, the concrete on the ground, towards the metal to finish on a green touch with the green roof of the building.
The activity of La Poste continues
The basement is also put to use since it hosts a logistics platform of 1,000 m2 intended to receive parcels and organize their deliveries for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 9th arrondissements of the capital.
Deliveries that will be completely carbon-free since they are exclusively made by electric cargo bikes.
That the most worried are reassured, the post office is indeed always present. It has gained in modernity what it has lost in space. Since the importance of mail is less, it focuses on the quality of the services it offers. Thus, no more counters but a single reception desk. New generation automatons allow the agency to provide all the necessary services. "However, the human being is not abandoned since 45 people work on this place, specifies Linda Prince, director of the agency, of which 25 are dedicated to reception". These employees, dressed in black jackets, stroll through dedicated spaces, ready to answer all questions from visitors.
The agency also offers additional services, such as a telephony space, another dedicated to philately.
It is even possible to pass your Highway Code in an original courier transformed into an individual office to obtain the precious sesame.
Finished 24 hours a day
Two things could mark the regulars of the old post office.
The first, and not the least, concerns the opening hours.
Reputed to never close, this agency will now open "only" from 8 am to midnight.
The reason for this change is simple and justified by Linda Prince: “People come late to get the day's proof of deposit.
There was almost never anyone at midnight.
So we no longer had any reason to open at these times.
»
We therefore bet that visitors will be more disconcerted by the paintings on the ceiling of the entrance.
Revealed and highlighted during the restoration, they link the symbols of telecoms and the postal service to the French Republic.
At least, a good excuse to take a walk on the side of the rue du Louvre.
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Louvre
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The post office
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