Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville
Coordinates: 48°51′27″N 2°21′12″E / 48.85745°N 2.353344444°E
The Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville or BHV is a department store on rue de Rivoli in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, facing the Hôtel de Ville. It is part of the Groupe Galeries Lafayette and served by the Metro station Hôtel de Ville. It occupies four other smaller specialized stores, in the neighborhood, and has also opened several other shops in France and in Beirut, Lebanon. BHV currently operates several stores in the Paris metropolitan area and two in the Lyon metropolitan area.
The store slogan is "Style as lifestyle" ("Style comme style de vie")
Xavier Ruel, an engineer, and his wife moved to Paris in 1852. Ruel was selling small items through street vendors and realized that the most effective neighborhood was the one around the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). Therefore, he rented the ground floor of a building to open a boutique, in this neighborhood, which he called, the “Bazar Parisien”. According to the legend, in 1855, Ruel saved Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugénie, whose horses got frightened while passing in front of his store. To reward him, she gave him a sum of money which, enabled him to expand his store, in 1856, which he renamed “Bazar Napoléon” to show his gratitude to the Emperor and his wife. In 1866, thanks to his successful business, he was able to rent three floors of this same building, on 54 rue de Rivoli. In 1870, his store occupied the whole building. In 1871, due to the fall of the Empire, Ruel changed the name of the store by “Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville” which refers to the Hôtel de Ville, located across the street.
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