Photo by Sandrine Alouf
The air is discreetly laden with a haze of incense and tobacco smoke: welcome to a kingdom ruled by that stubborn vice. Though it is politically incorrect, the place is a favourite with many a dignitary from the Constitutional Council or Ministry of Culture, located nearby.
Beneath the 17th-century colonnaded mall at Palais-Royal, Rakel Van Kote, an Israeli woman of Afghan extraction, stocks snuffboxes, pipes, manicure kits, canes, umbrellas, and curiosities, all of them antique.
Photo by Sandrine Alouf
Her clientele, made up largely of collectors, includes Karl Lagerfeld and the great-grandson of Gustave Eiffel. The objects of their desire are arranged in stacks, sometimes precariously balanced one on top of the other, or overlapping in a charming puzzle of parts and pieces.
True, the shop is pocket-sized, but it is located in one of Paris's most strollable neighbourhoods. The renown of the proprietress is such that she often lends collectibles for use as movie props. For example, in the film Molière, Romain Duris puffs on a cigarette-holder straight from this boutique.
A L'Oriental; Arcades du Palais-Royal, 19-22, galerie de Chartres, 1. arr. Metro: Palais-Royal-Musée-du-Louvre
Open Monday - Saturday, 11 am-7 pm. Sundays by appointment
Extract from the French-English guide PARIS DECO, written by Edith Pauly and published at Parigramme.
