This Valentine’s Day, I decided to rediscover the Hermès boutique, a place I hadn’t set foot in since an incident that left a bitter taste in my mouth. A few years ago, someone from the brand’s communications department left me insulting messages on my answering machine, a deep disappointment for me, especially as my grudge, tenacious like that of all Scorpios, is not easily erased. I know it’s not an enviable quality, but there it is. Having left the god Vidar of Norse mythology behind, I parked my bike at the corner of Le Faubourg.
As soon as I entered, the experience was quite different, I was taken care of immediately. The first thing that struck me was the elegance of the place, where Art Deco meets controlled modernity. The architectural lines, rigorous and balanced, recall the golden age of design while leaving room for a contemporary fluidity. Under the subtly subdued lighting, leather, precious wood and touches of lacquer meet each other with refined sobriety.
As for the team, they were genuinely attentive and caring, a far cry from the image I’d formed in the past because of an ‘Aérée du cortex’ who couldn’t even hang up her phone properly. The welcome was worthy of the prestige of the house, and the hushed, almost intimate atmosphere made the experience even more pleasant. It’s fascinating to see the extent to which service and attention to detail can transform a perception, and above all help you to spend €1,000 without realising it.
I was delighted to find the scarf counter again, unchanging despite the passage of time in the same place, like a landmark, an anchor in this house where history and modernity coexist in rare harmony. In the end, this visit erased the bad impression of the past, and allowed me to rediscover Hermès in a new light. And as far as the house of the ever-subtle Jean-Louis is concerned, it won back a long-lost customer.