Maison Empereur, Marseille: the Oldest Hardware Store in France, Open Since 1827

Marseille's oldest shop is a short walk from the Canebière, on a side street of the Noailles district, where a hardware store founded in 1827 has grown over eight generations into a general store of 1,300 square meters. Maison Empereur is the oldest hardware store in France, still run by the same family, and the best place in the city for a gift or a souvenir.

Through the door, the shop opens into wooden counters, palm baskets and objects stacked to the ceiling. The staff wear the Prussian blue jacket of the nineteenth-century tradesman, and the shelves around them hold the souvenirs to carry home from Marseille, soap from the city's soap makers, copper pans, pocket knives, enamel coffee pots, espadrilles and Provençal fabrics.

Maison Empereur: palm market bags stacked against a rough stone wall, brushes hanging from a dark wooden shelf above — The market baskets and brushes. Photo: Déstaire

Eight generations on the rue des Récolettes

The business opened in 1827 on the Place de la Bourse, moved in 1845 to the rue d'Aubagne, and has stood at 4 rue des Récolettes since 1862. François Empereur, an edge-tool maker by trade, bought the shop and gave it his name, and his son Louis added workshops for iron fittings. Laurence Renaux-Empereur, the seventh generation and the first woman to run the house, directs it today. The city has listed the shop as part of its heritage, and in 2024 it was one of five shops worldwide to receive the retail prize of the housewares trade.

Maison Empereur: the brown shop front on the rue des Récolettes, the sign lit by a string of lights, the stone building and balcony above — The shop front on the rue des Récolettes. Photo: Déstaire

The departments grew the way the family did, one passion at a time, hardware first, then household goods, kitchenware, cutlery, traditional toys, work clothes and the fabrics of Provence. Small cards tucked into the staff's pockets still take down what a customer wanted and could not find, the same way the catalogue has been built for nearly two centuries.

The shelves hold some 50,000 references, and the family favors the historic manufacturers of France, more than 200, some still on the shelves since the shop opened. Marseille soap, enamel plates, copper pans, Opinel knives, feather dusters, brooms, espadrilles, wooden toys and wicker baskets share the floor with the kitchen knife and the candles that carry the Empereur name.

Maison Empereur: rows of white sheepskin slippers on dark wooden shelves — Sheepskin slippers on the shelves. Photo: Déstaire

The museum upstairs

Above the Gourmandises department, a small museum on two floors tells the history of the house through the oldest French manufacturers, with a piece from each of them, beside the shop's own archives, old staff uniforms and a collection of nineteenth-century objects stamped with the Empereur name. The upper floor keeps the parquet of the Salon Saint-Louis, a dance hall that stood here in the nineteenth century between two hotels named Saint-Louis.

Maison Empereur: copies of the Maison Empereur book stacked in an old dark wooden cabinet, palm baskets beside it — The Maison Empereur book, on a shelf in the shop. Photo: Déstaire

What to buy

The soap and the blue work jacket are the obvious souvenirs. The cubes of Marseille soap come from the city's four traditional soap makers, from around 4 euros for a 300 gram cube and under 6 for a 400 gram one, and at the other end of the scale a 30 kilo block stands on the floor for 139 euros, cut in two for anyone who wants it delivered. Then the kitchen, the enamelware, the copper and the house knife, and for something smaller the sheepskin slippers, the Eau des Dames cologne made for the house, the candles and the Provençal fabrics.

Maison Empereur: a wooden drawer filled with green cubes of Marseille soap in sunlight — Marseille soap, the kitchen shelves and rubber boots. Photos: Déstaire

Maison Empereur: steel pans and pots hanging from a wooden shelf in the kitchen department — Marseille soap, the kitchen shelves and rubber boots. Photos: Déstaire

A night above the shop

On the second floor, up two flights of stairs and with no lift, the family rents out an apartment with a living room, a double bedroom, a kitchen for breakfast and a covered terrace. It is furnished with antiques and objects from the shop's own past, a zinc and wood bathtub to fill by candlelight, and a glass case in the living room with two centuries of the shop's catalogues, photographs and letters. It sleeps two and is listed on Airbnb.

Maison Empereur: the apartment bedroom, a wooden bed against dark brown walls, a fringed lampshade and old tools on the wall — The bedroom of the apartment above the shop. Photo: Antonella Machet

When to go

The shop opens Monday to Saturday from 10 to 7, and closes on Sunday. Pair the visit with coffee and a sandwich at Pétrin Couchette, the bakery around the corner on the Cours Saint-Louis, then walk back down the Canebière to the Vieux-Port toward the city center.

Pétrin Couchette: the coffee counter seen through the open window under the sign Pain vivant et café délicieux — The counter at Pétrin Couchette. Photo: Déstaire

More of Marseille

For the other shops worth the walk, from the boutiques of the rue Paradis to a Japanese tea house of many rooms, see Where to Shop in Marseille, for the rooms that face the sea, Where to Stay in Marseille, and for coffee, The Best Coffee Shops in Marseille. The rest of the city, from its restaurants to the day trips beyond it, is in our Marseille city guide.

Discover more of France.

Swimmers and white parasols on the rocks above the sea at Les Goudes, Marseille — The rocks at Les Goudes, where the city ends and the calanques begin. Photo: Déstaire