Élysée snowglobes, anyone? Macron flogs a slice of palace life

The gifts shops of palaces around the world know a thing or two about turning pomp and ceremony into pounds and profit. Yet none, perhaps, can offer you “Liberty, Equality, Cup of tea”.
Often criticised for being a “president of the rich”, Emmanuel Macron now wants shoppers to share in his Élysée lifestyle. His new brainchild, The Élysée shop, café and museum sits directly opposite the presidential palace on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and has been doing roaring trade since its launch for the Paris Olympics at the end of last month.
A mug bearing the Republican motto, “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” will set you back €39. A T-shirt echoing the opening line of the French national anthem, proclaiming that you are an “Enfant de la patrie” (Child of the fatherland), costs €59.
Should you wish to lend your bathroom or kitchen a touch of presidential grandeur, you can buy Marseilles soap stamped with RF for République Française, or the Élysée’s own brand of extra-virgin olive oil for €25 a half-litre.
Yannick Desbois, Macron’s deputy chief-of-staff, told Le Monde newspaper that the head of state had been inspired by the success of the Élysée’s online merchandising offer, with sales of some €7 million since its launch in 2018, the year after he first took office. Some €200,000 of that has been used “to maintain the Élysée Palace’s heritage”, he said.
Maison Élysée occupies a former wedding dress boutique whose refurbishment cost the palace €3.5 million. It has an annual budget of €1.2 million. The decor is by Sarah Lavoine, an acclaimed interior designer, and its exhibition space features a reconstruction of one of the Élysée’s gilded salons.
Some visitors have complained that too many photographs of Macron are on display, though, while comparatively few of his predecessors are on show. Desbois insisted that “it is a presidential museum, not a Macron museum. It pays tribute to all the presidents.”
Macron has often been accused of pushing through economic reforms that favour businesses over ordinary people, while being criticised for wearing luxury watches. His office has justified the project’s price tag, though, saying it showcases “the excellence of French manufacturing” and gives “every French citizen a behind-the-scenes look at a house that belongs to them”. All the products on sale, which also include sunglasses, jewellery and “bleu-blanc-rouge” striped T-shirts, are made in France.
The French presidency is not new to merchandising. Many of these products have been available online since 2018, but now the public can buy them at Maison Élysée, the palace’s “boutique officielle”. Light refreshments are available at a 40-seat café upstairs, which offers a spectacular view of the palace’s front courtyard. It serves pastries made in the Élysée kitchens, and chocolates and ice cream by the celebrated chef Alain Ducasse.
Maison Élysée also offers an immersive virtual reality exhibition on three centuries of palace history. A mini-museum displays artefacts such as a desk made in 1740 that was used by presidents including Charles de Gaulle and François Mitterrand.