Monday, April 04, 2011

'Facade lift'!


You may find it hard to recognize this very famous Paris landmark and though, yes, this is La Conciergerie, the same building I photographed here, in 2009. Much less breath taking, don't you think?! Alas, due to the pollution in Paris, buildings need to be cleaned regularly, and there is no other way than hanging a huge scaffolding against them. Now, the big controversy is: should they but this giant ad on it while they're doing the work? Highly controversial of course and political too: the green party wants to ban them, the government does not because it helps contributing to the renovation costs. I personally like them when they are creative, like the one I photographed here. In this particular case I think Dior could have done better!

21 comments:

  1. I walked past there on Saturday with the sun shining! Thought the covers over the police station much better and more interesting.

    But it is a fabulous place to visit (much better than Sainte Chappelle

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  2. I remember the same debate regarding advertising in Venice. There is a similar ad wrapped around the Doge's palace and the Bridge of Sighs. The ads are an important revenue source for renovating the historic city. It may be unfortunate, but money is vital for maintaining such buildings. It's temporary, but then the building lives on.

    I agree that Dior could have been more creative. I remember when Printemps had the construction scaffold shroud and it looked just like the building, complete with the Opera reflected in the windows.

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  3. Oh, yeah: say bonjour to PHX for me.

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  4. Oh wow!!!!!! Never seen that building under a tent before ;)

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  5. I think wearing advertising to get a free facelift is well worth it .I just wish it worked the same way for humans.

    Just a note on yesterday's food pix. My salad on the left was topped with a piece of thick toast and a generous slice of browned oozing Camembert on top of that. My thighs are now making rubbing noises as I walk, but who cares!

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  6. Non seulement les Verts, mais les amoureux du patrimoine sont contre ces publicités gigantesques (bien souvent en partie dans l'illégalité). Le problème, surtout est que ces pubs se multiplient, notamment le long de la Seine, et on a l'impression qu'une promenade en bateau-mouche devient un gigantesque spot publicitaire sur un lieu classé au patrimoine de l'UNESCO. Pour avoir des données supplémentaires voir cet article de La Tribune de l'art :
    http://www.latribunedelart.com/les-publicites-geantes-se-multiplient-sur-la-seine-article003047.html
    L'idéal serait de s'en tenir à l'exemple de discrétion et de réussit esthétique proposé par le Crillon !

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  7. I think ads can be great fun and most diverting - as long as they are not for cigarettes or alchohol - but a bit of perfune? Unless of course they test on animals.

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  8. They are temporary and help defray the cost to keep the monuments beautiful and alive! I see no harm in it.

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  9. Yeah, I took a similar shot this weekend too, and I'm intending on using it on my blog shortly, and I'm not going to be very complimentary either.
    I appreciate the above comment informing me that the money helps pay for the renovation - that's going to help me tone down what I was going to say, but all the same, there are two things I don't like. One is that it's blatant, in-your-face advertising for some stupid rich-b*tch product in the middle of our beautiful city. And secondly, as has also been mentioned, oh-how-so-uninventive!
    I wouldn't have minded much AT ALL if only they had used a bit of humour or irony or ANYTHING other than some standard catalogue shot of the bottle like in the metro or any magazine. And what a missed opportunity for them too. How much more interesting and attention-grabbing (positively speaking) if they had only used their imaginations just a teeny-weeny bit and linked their product to the Concièrgerie or Marie-Antoinette or whatever (might have got into trouble for that tho'!).
    Alas, this is the visual pollution we have to put up with, along with sky-high watches on the Louvre but a far more elegant cover-up job on the Crillon building at Concorde if any of you have seen it. Did I end up ranting in the end after all? Sorry :-S

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  10. +1 Sab

    About yesterday's picnic BTW, the photo shoot I had before ended much sooner than expected (because of the weather of course) and then I passed by the Pont des Arts much earlier than expected.

    I did not have the strength to go out again once I was back in the cosy warmth of my home!

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  11. Yeah I guess they could have done better than this.
    Actually J'adore this perfume (and I'm not a rich b....SAB !LOL ;o) )

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  12. totally agree with you Eric and everybody, and also I was a total fan of what they put up the préfecture - SO immensly much better and very imaginative, this is just sooooo boring and unnecessary (except for the money Dior is paying and Boy, do they would need some positive publicity!).... I cannot believe that they have no more imagination than that. What amazes me even more is that the PRIVATE owners put so much care in their scaffoldings; as Jeff mentionned the Printemps or presently the hotels Crillon and Lambert... Makes you think!

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  13. I think if it helps pay for the renovation, that is a good thing. I would hate to think of having to take care of all the cost of building maintenance without such "help".


    PHX--dinner sounds absolutely lovely!! Glad you all had a wonderful time. :)

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  14. Definitely not my favorite scaffolding ad that I've seen, for the reasons mentioned by other posters. I would have been nice to have to something more attractive and that would have covered all of the scaffoling and not just a third of it.

    @PHX - browned camembert sounds amazing! I chanced upon a sample of a camembert in my grocery store recently and it made my day. I'll be buying a wheel of it after I'm done with the wedding dress diet...

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  15. Justine
    Follow what I did and you will fit in the dress.
    Buy unpasturized camembert stuffed with black truffles on rue Montogruiel.

    Keep unfrigerated for 24 hrs. because you forgot about it.

    When you suddenly remember about it, grab said camembert with unwashed(because you are so anxious to try it) hands and stuff in mouth.

    Get food poisoning 4 hrs later.

    Voila, dress fits.

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  16. I agree with the majority: good, because the revenue helps maintain this important building/bad, because a little more imagination would have been so much nicer. Imagination and whimsy are expected in Paris!

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  17. At least it's an ad for French perfume and not McD's!
    And we all have to make a euro somehow (even la ville de Paris. For some reason these ads bother me more in Venice than they do in Paris.

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  18. I noticed it too on Saturday night as I walked back from the Marais ... and thought it was an interesting choice too. Many more of the important building seem to have been cleaned recently.


    A Tres Bientot,
    Christine Hueber

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  19. I remember seeing scaffolding around Louis Vuitton in Paris when they were remodeling. The plastic-wrap was made to look like the building a giant Louis Vuitton suitcase - so clever!

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