It is fascinating whenever you realize that the history of a shop can serve to explain the history of a country. Today, in 2026, selling suitcases and travel bags is a prosperous business. In an era of taking planes and high-speed trains like one takes the subway, being well-equipped is as fundamental as breathing. Now, leisure and business travel is perfectly incorporated into the daily lives of the middle class – or what’s left of it – and the well-off. But what was happening sixty years ago? And seventy? And a hundred? Well, what was happening was that people, the average citizen, did not travel for pleasure. Or, if they did, it was very exceptionally.