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Electrica for Sony, a little Boutique in Paris

1987
The idea for the little Boutique
was to sell Sony Phones.
The phones could not be found anywhere in Europe
They were revolutionnary for their times:
Beautiful Phones includng an Answering Machines
or Cordless House Phones.

The only problem once the shippment
arrived from New York in September 1987
at the Charles de Gaulle airport
it was bloked by the customes authorities.

Desaster, un "douanier" explained that there was a French Law
forbidding importation of phones that were not "agrée PTT".
In fact the local PTT had a control over the market
and only French manufactures got the "agrée PTT" label.

The Boutique could not open
and there was no money left.

what to do now ?

Thurn & Taxis: "I could send you another Thaler
but this is not a good solution.
Think about all the difficulties the old postmasters had to handle
try to use this problem to find an idea"

As it was impossible to sell Sony phones
due to the PTT's Monopoly
the idea was to create a "Service Center"
for these iconic phones.
There was no law forbidding to sell 220v power adaptors,
batteries, phone connectors, repair service.

1989
The Sony power adaptors were little cash cows.
Soon Paris Match started to cover the store.
Telephone Lovers poored into the store, one of them was Lady Diana.
Another Sony Boutique opened accross the street.
The aura of the young Boutique came to the ears of Akio Morita
who used us as a "test leb" to check out how
"Paris" was reacting to his latest ideas.



1990
August preparing a third Sony Boutique
12 rue de la Ferronnerie (today Cremerie N°6)
Thurn & Taxis was impatient to come see it ...

"Clever these little Sony phone adaptors
have helped you to finance another shop that fast,
the next step is to buy the main Cremerie
right in the old Postal Building
I love the idea - I feel the energy of the old postmasters -
I'll help you some more thalers"

But he could not come

1990 December 19
he died

During the last five years of his life
he was watching everything we did.

He came to Paris many times and
told us never ending crazy and funny telecom stories,
in the cafes of Les Halles,
at the Ritz and in his Regensburg castle.

Most of the stories came over the phone.
Suffering from insomania Thurn & Taxis had the original habit
to call in the middle of the night
to talk about the old postmasters when he couldn't sleep.
The student had a friend in Seattle that also used to call
in the middle of the night inciting Thurn & Taxis to do the same.

Half asleep it was really amusing to get this late hour attention.
Too bad he did not record the phone calls,
they would be historic documents today.









Very quickly the old Telecom genes of our walls in Paris
were reactivated
and the little Boutique took off.
Still alive Thurn & Taxis could see
the T&T Thalers he had given to us
beeing multiplied over and over again ....


There have been so many changes in the Telecom Industry,
one technology replacing another
sometimes people are surprised we are still there.

But when you have had the chance to get a T&T Thaler
with centuries of history
coming directly from the old postmasters
you have the obligation to do everyting you can
to face turbulances
finding new ideas all the time ...


Thurn & Taxis not only left us
his spirit of Telecommunications and some Thalers.
He also left us a wonderful friend,
Aimee de Heeren N°21

Aimée was Brazilian, full of energy
she facinated everybody by her joy of life.
Daughter of a school teacher
she grew up in a small town of Brazil
Still very young Aimée and her sister Vera wanted to discover the world
and moved to Rio de Janeiro ...
They were so beautiful every door opend
and soon destiny made her cross the path of a major inventor
also in the filed of Telecommunications.

Every december she came to Regensburg
to stay with Thurn & Taxis for 3 weeks.
We do not know she met Johannes,
probablyin the early 1950s at a NY or Paris cocktail party.

The rest of the year Aimée lived between
Paris, Biarritz, New York and Palm Beach.
Nobody knew her age ....

Another friend inherited from Thurn & Taxis
is André Dunstetter, a Franco American business consultant.


From Innsbruck, Austria Aja Sachsen
(cousin of Johannes, daughter of Elisabeth Helene)
was also watching over us.
She could not travel any more
but in the years 2010 she became a "telephone friend"
following every Expo at the Postal Mansion
and telling us wonderfull stories about her grandfather Albert
"he was my darling" .



screenshots our first website created in 1991

1991
Working around Sony was a chance
as the Japaneese company was extremely creative.
Soon we discovered a new tool
to attract more clients to our shops.
Minitel, a French ancester of the Internet.
Our prehistoric 100 page website
just pulled Sony Lovers into the stores.

At that time it was one of the very first 100 pages website,
some screenshots still exist.