Located on one of the city's main thoroughfares at Boulevard Strasbourg 9, the Palais Paris-France in Toulon was built between 1950 and 1951 to a design by the Polish-French architectural firm of Adrianna Gorska and Pierre de Montaut, working in collaboration with Joseph Lajarrige and Louis Poutu. The modernist edifice, which replaced the Dames de France department store destroyed during the bombing of the city during World War II, is one of the few surviving realisations of this architectural team.

The genesis of the project

After the 1944 bombing, all that remained on the site of the five-storey 1912 Dames de France department store designed by Lamazière was a gaping hole in the ground. In consultation with the city council, the management of the Paris-France company, which owned the site, decided to develop the plot as a matter of urgency. In 1950, a building was commissioned to be designed to accommodate commercial premises on the two lower floors and office and residential spaces on the seven upper floors. This task was entrusted to a pair of renowned Parisian architects - Adrianna Gorska and Pierre de Montaut - in collaboration with Marseille-based architects Joseph Lajarrige and Louis Poutu.

A duo at work and in life - Adrianna Gorska and Pierre de Montaut

Hailing from a Polish-Jewish family, Adrianna Gorska was one of the first professional female architects active in France. Her work is still overshadowed by that of her sister, the painter Tamara Łempicka, for whom she created the interior design of a flat at 7 rue Méchain. Gorska, a graduate of the École Spéciale d'Architecture (ESA), began working with the architecture firm Molinié y Nicot in 1930, where she met her husband, the French architect Pierre de Montaut (1892-1947). From their marriage in 1934, Gorska and de Montaut worked as a duo. They gained recognition with their modernist cinema buildings realised for the Cinéac company. By realising more than a dozen cinemas in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Tunisia, they created a new type of small, functionalist cinemas with a more modest design than before. Many of the technical solutions they applied in terms of lighting, acoustics or room ventilation later became standards. Both belonged to the prestigious group of avant-garde architects, painters and sculptors under the leadership of Robert Mallet-Stevens in the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM).

Architecture of the Palais Paris-France

In view of the many challenges involved in building the Palais Paris-France, the decision of the Paris-France management to employ a team of architects with experience in buildings requiring the implementation of unconventional and innovative solutions was fully justified. Thanks to the use of a two-storey attic on the seven floors, the building, which combines commercial, office and residential functions, has been harmoniously integrated into the surrounding Haussmann-style architecture. The façade is supported by pillars, and the water, gas and electricity supply is carried out externally under the attic above the service units. The building has a U-shape. The introduction of a curved corner at rue Pastureau, emphasised by the use of a loggia, gives the building lightness and dynamism. With its horizontal articulation, the building is reminiscent of Robert Mallet-Stevens.

Name changes

The building was inaugurated under the name Palais Paris-France, which referred to the name of the company that owned it, on 9 October 1951. Following the sale of the building in 1984, the name was changed to Galeries Lafayette.