One of the strangest stories circulating this week among Paris history buffs concerns a department store most visitors have never heard of — yet which once ranked among the biggest in the world. The Grands Magasins Dufayel, founded in 1856 as the Palais de la Nouveauté, made its name selling furniture and household goods on credit to working-class Parisians, and at its peak employed around 15,000 people. It closed in 1930, and the vast building in the 18th arrondissement spent decades as offices, notably for BNP.

The latest chapter is a full restoration and conversion into a modern office complex called WOW, led with VINCI Immobilier involved. As of November 2026 the redevelopment is substantially complete — but don't pack your bags to shop there. The building is now premium commercial office space, not a public destination.

The detail getting history-lovers talking is the store's theatrical bifurcated staircase, with its ornate iron balustrades. Developers say the "escalier patrimonial" was restored alongside the façade and the Eiffel-style metal structure, and recent descriptions claim the staircase was renovated "à l'identique" — rebuilt in kind — and still sits at the heart of the building. The catch: the blogger behind Messy Nessy Chic has yet to see a single photo proving it, suspects the staircase may have been lost long before this project, and has thrown down a challenge to Paris-based sleuths to verify. Even if it survives, it's inside a private office building, so casual visits aren't on the cards.

The same roundup serves up a couple of other tempting tidbits for travellers. In London, Number 1 Goodwin's Court — a converted haberdasher's shop built around 1700, just 34 years after the Great Fire — has hit the market for £1,595,000 after a ten-year revival. The Grade II* listed house sits in the Covent Garden Conservation Area and is said to have inspired Ollivanders Wand Shop in the Harry Potter films. Even if you can't stretch to the asking price, Goodwin's Court itself is a wonderfully atmospheric alley to seek out between Leicester Square and Covent Garden.

Also worth diary-ing: Bonhams is staging what's being billed as the auction of the century — a Stanley Kubrick sale at 101 New Bond Street on 3 February 2027, with an online component closing the following day. A free public exhibition of the full sale runs from 18 January to 3 February, which means you could browse the collection in person for the price of a tube fare.

And if your travels take you to Sydney, a vintage photo doing the rounds shows a family barbecue held on top of HMAS Onslow, a diesel submarine that served the Royal Australian Navy from 1968 to 1999. The boat now lives at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, where visitors can go aboard — sans sausages, presumably.

Why it matters: these are the kind of off-guidebook details that turn an ordinary city break into a scavenger hunt — a hidden staircase to hunt for, a 300-year-old alley to photograph, a free exhibition to wander through.

Via Messy Nessy Chic.