The Heratchian grocery store, a hundred years of oriental feasting in the heart of Paris

On the occasion of the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles , which will be held from July 7 to October 5, 2025, Libération is giving pride of place to photography. Find the special issue "Libé des photographes" on newsstands on July 12, 13 and 14 or in its digital version .

Even before entering Heratchian, an oriental grocery store in Paris's 9th arrondissement, you can already sense, from the street, the very special atmosphere that reigns in this timeless place. A bright orange facade, inscriptions reminiscent of the Armenian alphabet, products in the window presented in a more or less organized order... Everything invites us to enter, despite the crazy heat of this early July. The blades of the ceiling fan turn in the vague hope of cooling this large space filled with delicacies, where the smell of brine mingles with that of candied fruits glistening with all their sugar.

Heratchian celebrated its centenary on June 30th. And despite the decades, everything seems to have frozen here in a beautifully old-fashioned setting, like a photograph forgotten in a trunk. " It's not just an impression: the grocery store has been co