For Open House weekend this year we visited several fascinating sites. In the first of four articles, we show you the headquarters of the Crédit Lyonnais, which is usually closed to the public, and walked up its incredible staircase…

It’s an impressive building – constructed bteween 1876 and 1913, 9,800m², a façade stretching 68 metres, a 21-metre high ceiling in the entrance, a clock modelled on the one at the Louvre and a staircase that’s a copy of the double-helix jawdropper in the château de Chambord.

The interior was restored just a few years ago, and we remember that 20 years ago you could simply walk into the building without anyone asking who you were, take the lift up to the top floor with its skylight 30 metres up, and walk down the staircase.

Unfortunately, the 1995 bombings put a stop to that, and nowadays access to the public is only granted once a year. This gave a certain nostalgic tinge to our visit…

Here are our photos.To check out all our photos of the headquarters of the Crédit Lyonnais, click the play button below, then click the four little arrows bottom right to go into fullscreen mode.