Remember when we told you about the annual Heritage Days? Well we made a beeline for the ‘Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris’, one of the four banks that was merged to create the BNP. The building – that now houses the officies of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, was open to the public for the first time ever, for one day only, and we weren’t going to miss it!

And it was amazing! Here’s our photo report…We’d seen one photo of the main hall, and knew we had to go, even if it meant queuing for nearly an hour (and it did). While waiting, we had ample time to admire the façade.From the first step inside, there are intricate mosaics and grand wooden doors…The you enter the main hall, with an incredible 17 metre-high glass ceiling with stained glass. Carved stone and mosaics are everywhere, the floor has glass tiles illuminate from below, and the floor is all iron and mosaic. Add to that a huge old clock, and you have one impressive room.The next room is through a corridor and up a few steps… into another world. The amazing vaulted ceiling is covered in mosaic, as are the walls. It looks like a sultan’s bathhouse!

It really must have made an impression on clients and investors back in the day (the building dates from 1878), and the workmanship is absolutely incredible.The rest of the visit takes you to a meeting room with its ornate ceramic fireplace, a carved stone staircase and wooden lift (that never got further than the 1st floor!), some more great floor coverings and the freshly-cleaned courtyard…To check out all our photos, click the play button on the slideshow below, then click the four little arrows bottom right to go into fullscreen mode.

And you can find more information about the building here on Wikipedia.