Talk about timing

We knew that the view from La Samaritaine was reputed to be among the best in Paris.


FRANCE: FIRE RISK CLOSES SAMARITAINE STORE La Samaritaine, the grand old Paris department store on the banks of the Seine, is closing for several years to modernize after a police report deemed it a serious fire risk. "We think it will take several years of work, probably a minimum of three to four years," Philippe de Beauvoir, the president of the store, Paris's largest, told the newspaper Le Parisien. He said it would cost almost $125 million to modernize the 100-year-old Art Nouveau and Art Deco complex, now owned by LVMH-Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. As employees absorbed the news, several hundred gathered outside LVMH headquarters to protest, although Mr. de Beauvoir said none of the 800 workers would lose their jobs. "They're going to pay us to stay at home for six years?" a 34-year employee asked.
(Reuters)