Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Trompe l'oeil


Look closely at this building. In appearance nothing extraordinary; it's a typical middle ages Paris building (I took this photo from the top of the Beaubourg Center) but if you look closer at the right hand part you will notice that the whole two window right row is... fake! (see here, for close-ups)

15 comments:

  1. A new twist on the phrase "a room with a view." Quite charming.

    Elisabeth

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  2. Wow! it took me a little while to understand what you meant by 'fake'! I thought, how can a building be fake? (unless perhaps the photo was digitally altered?) But then I realised that the windows were painted on. Pretty convincing job!

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  3. This is a nice way for the architect to maintain symmetry on the outside of the building and still maintain internal spaces for mechanicals - such as elevators, stairs, etc.

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  4. Looks great but feels claustrophobic. I hope it for mechanical systems.

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  5. je pars en week end et j'ai deja 5000 photos de retard. oupss... ca va vite sur ce site... c'est pas comme sur d'autres blogs... ;-))

    bon, funny this story about fake windows. who would have known ? pas moi en tout cas.

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  6. > Elisabeth. Excellent!
    > Sophie. In fact they is one little thing that is not painted and probably makes a large difference: "les rebords" (I have no idea of the English word for that!!)
    > Rock. Well in fact, I don't know why this building section is totally "blind". Because it's a very very old building so they did not need elevators at that time.
    > Anonymous. Isn't?
    > Dev. Don't know how it feels inside. I should try to go once. Will provide a full report here if I do!
    > Charlus. You did not know this???

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  7. Eric, I bet you would be a wonderful tour guide. I have already learned so much more about Paris from you than I did in 4 days while visiting.
    Your blog is always the highlight of my day!
    Beaubourg is the Pompideau, correct? I remember my friend Jean-Christophe telling me about it and how no one calls it by it's real name.

    Thank you for your wonderful pictures!

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  8. Eric - what's the address of this building ? I'll keep a look out for it when I'm there.

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  9. > Floski. Thanks a lot. Always nice to hear. Yes Beaubaurg is also called the Pompidou center, after a former French President. In fact we usually use both names.

    > Dev. It's easy to find but I don't know the actual address really. Go to the Pompidou Center (also called Beaubourg Center, see above) - it's easy to find it's in every guide and everyone in the street will know!.
    Then once you're there, be sure you have the Pompidou Center on your back and you will see the fake window building in front of you on the left.

    Better you can go up the Pompidou Center and have a look at it from the very top (that is where I took the photo)...

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  10. Where did you find it? Interesting read » » »

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  11. http://www.parisdailyphoto.com/2005/08/trompe-loeil.html

    Rue Quincampoix

    Gina

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  12. http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/62342/view/?service=0

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