Lou Woolworth, the heiress who makes jewelry from every era vibrate

One could spend hours on the sidewalk at 51, rue de Seine, in front of its windows, having fun identifying the signatures and periods of this or that piece of jewelry. An exercise all the more stimulating since the thirty-something Lou Woolworth , head of this gallery, loves nothing more than putting side by side 19th ^- century fishwives, a ball ring by the contemporary designer Chloé Valorso, earrings by Claude Lalanne, an 18th ^- century micromosaic ring, a breastplate by the artist Nisa Chevènement…

Inside, too, there are treasures, starting with a sublime spiral staircase (which is not for sale!) in wood and steel by Marc Held, a relic from the time when the architect, who designed François Mitterrand 's apartments at the Élysée, had his showroom there in the 1970s.

“My mother and grandmother moved here in the 1980s ,” says the woman who now runs the Subra Woolworth gallery, which she has just renamed Woolworth.