When three generations of a family succeed each other at Paribas
A bank is a space dedicated to money. It is also a place embodied by the men and women who work there. Sometimes, generations follow one another in the same bank. This is the case of the Restouble family, who have seen three generations work at Paribas. Indeed, Martine Restouble joined in 1964, thus taking over from her father and grandfather. She recalled for us the key moments in the family history inscribed at the heart of the bank.
Workplace, the bank is also a place to live where couples form and families are born. Martine Chabrol, born Restouble, who retired from the Group in 1999, shared her testimony about her grandfather, a halberdier and then an employee in the securities service of Paribas at the beginning of the 20th century, and about her father, an office employee in the gold market, then a clerk and cashier from 1922 to 1964.
Emile Restouble : From Hôtel Crillon to the bank
Emile Restouble was born in 1871, one year before Paribas was established. He worked reception for some years at the Hôtel Crillon, the famous Paris luxury hotel on Place de la Concorde.
In the 1900s thanks to a recommendation by a colleague at the Crillon, Restouble joined Paribas as a halberdier. This was above all a visible reception job in full uniform, complete with beard and halberd. A halberdier would welcome visitors to the bank in the same way as an usher..
At the Crillon as well as at 3 rue d’Antin, headquarters of Paribas, it is necessary to give a good image of the institution one represents. That is why recommendations are often accompanied by a character survey.
A second career at the bank
Emile Restouble progressed after several years as a halberdier to become an employee in the equities department. His second profession was far different from the first and introduced him to office life in the bank.
In 1940 several departments fled Paris. Emile Restouble worked with his equities colleagues at château de Landifer in Baugé-en-Anjou, a property the bank had acquired in 1938, where he was to remain until the end of the war before returning to Paris.
His son, Emile Auguste, had also joined Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The family’s history was intertwined with the bank’s…
Emile Auguste Restouble and the gold market
Emile Auguste Restouble was twenty in 1922. He joined Paribas as an office clerk for the gold market, where he worked with his father, Emile Restouble, who had been a “halberdier” since the early 1900s. Both men had previously worked at Hôtel Crillon, the Paris luxury hotel, before moving to Paribas on the strength of a recommendation. It was thanks to the involvement of an acquaintance at the Crillon that both father and son in turn were hired by the bank at rue d’Antin in Paris. Emile Auguste Restouble had matriculated from school and worked on the gold market until the Second World War, when he was taken prisoner.
Bank messenger
The war years were, of course, terrible. Upon his return in 1945, Emile secured a position as a bank messenger at the clearing department. He wore a specific uniform for the job: a black morning coat with small buttons, a cocked hat and a case with a chain.
The job, which no longer exists, required unstinting honesty, as it entailed recovering bills from borrowers on the due date. As a reward for his efficiency, Emile Restouble ended his career as chief of a bank messenger team. He was appointed to the position in 1963 and retired from Paribas the following year.
A profession… and a family!
Emile Restouble enjoyed a worthy career at Paribas during which he met the woman who later became his wife: Olga. After matriculating from school, Olga joined the bank in 1927 at the till correspondence department. Olga Restouble left the bank in 1947 when her daughter, Martine, was born.
1964: Martine Chabrol joins Paribas
It was with a recommendation from her father, Emile Restouble, that Martine Chabrol (née Restouble) joined Paribas in August 1964. At 18 with a business diploma, Martine joined the typing pool. Thirty-odd women wearing the regulation blue blouse worked in the department in rows under the authority of a woman supervisor. They were assigned various secretarial tasks in the most rigorous of atmospheres… talking was forbidden!
Beginnings in the typing pool of Paribas
Private management
Some secretaries left the typing pool for other departments as substitutes.
Martine Restouble moved to the finance division, the special accounts department (which was subsequently renamed ‘private management’ division), one of the most prestigious departments in Paribas. The head of this department appreciated the substitute’s professionalism and asked her to join her team.
The change in position took place in 1965, which was followed by years of hard work and excitement. In addition to her own work, Martine Restouble became the assistant to Léonce Boissonnat, director of Private Management, until she took maternity leave in 1976.
Family life and life at the bank
Martine Restouble’s name changed to Chabrol after her marriage to Bernard, whom she met at the bank. After three years raising their son, Martine Chabrol returned to work at Paribas on a part-time basis in 1979, where she spent twenty years until retiring in 1999. The family tradition ended when Paribas joined the BNP group in 2000, although the son of Bernard and Martine Chabrol did do a one-month internship in the mail department. This was a nice way of discovering the bank where part of his family originated.
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