Paris - Tourist Traces

On the Rue St Honore, close to the Place Vendome, is the shop of Goyard, Malletier, or in other words Goyard: Trunk Maker. The fascia still shows in gold letters the travel goods for which the shop was famous: steamer trunks and baskets, and the claim "dresses carefully packed". Around the area are other shops serving the wealthy, many of whom come to Paris as tourists.

Maison Goyard is the oldest maker of trunks still in existence, having been a company under that name since 1853. Edme Goyard had joined the Maison Morel which itself dated back to 1792. When his son Francois bought that shop in 1853 it was renamed for himself and his father. Although no longer owned by the family (in the 1990s it was bought by the Signoles family) the business still makes trunks and sells them through a small number of outlets world wide. They are made to order in Carcassone in the south of France. Famous customers have included Madonna, Karl Lagerfeld, Gregory Peck and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom it must be said was also quite famous for his cases.