Thursday, February 18, 2010

Sewers


Paris, the city where even the sewers maintenance service have a cute little house! I found it at Place du Guignier in the 20the arrondissement and I could not resist. I read on this excellent site called "Paris Cool" that it would be for sale, but I doubt it. According to this site, you can find a large vaulted room underneath. Note the Paris coat of arms under the Service des égoutes sign: a boat with a latin motto "fluctuat nec mergitur" (floats and never sinks!).

16 comments:

  1. Once again, proof that even public works facilities in Paris are designed with class. Recall the cable pulleys on the bridge on Bassin de Villette. Cities can and should be beautiful! Wake up suburban America!

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  2. Bonjour Eric,
    At last I have found a site with a photographers sharp eagle eye which encapsulates the spirit of Paris. I have gone through much of your work and everytime,your work makes me smile.Kindest regards from Australia
    Therese Waddell author of 'My French Awakening'

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  3. Oh come on, Jeff. The USA has plenty of beautiful public buildings. I bet the American Daily Photo bloggers can show us some great stuff given the challenge.

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  4. "...Paris has another Paris under herself; a Paris of sewers; which has its streets, its crossings, its squares, its blind alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is slime, minus the human form." (Les Miserables, Jean Valjean; Book II, ch.1, by Victor Hugo)

    Eric, Are you going to take us to the Musée des égouts de Paris, or Paris Sewers Museum some day? You probably know that this museum of the Mairie de Paris is located in the sewers beneath the Quai d'Orsay on the Left Bank. I hear it's a "must see" destination for any visitor who's interested in engineering, public works, or unusual tourist attractions--and for fans of Victor Hugo's novel, Les Misérables. Or is this something too much for a tourist type photographer to do? :-s

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  5. I took my niece to lunch, which, at the time was called Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower. Afterwords we took a short walk to the Sewer museum Lois just mentioned. Thought that was an interesting justiposition.From the heights of haute cuisine to the depths of, well, you can fill in the blanks.
    Never saw anything that fluctuat nec mergitur, thank goodness!!!!! It really didn't smell either. Years later, I was guided thru it on ParisWalks. A much more interesting experience than doing it on your own.

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  6. Very Interesting... I've never seen a sewer house before.

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  7. Egouts? As in accent egout and accent grave? :-)
    Very cool little building indeed. What a find if one COULD buy it! My husband took me to Carmel and Monterrey, CA for our honeymoon, and spent some pleasant time perusing a charming jumble/antique shop called The Sewers of Paris, near Cannery Row. It had been the first time I had seen the term outside of reading Victor Hugo.
    -Kim

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  8. Trust the Parisians to have such an elegant little headquarters for the sewer. If it is for sale, I'd love to buy it and make it my little Parisien pied-a-terre.
    Lois -- I knew someone would bring up Hugo; should have known it would be you.

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  9. It's a charming little "house," though I'm not sure I'd want to live in it! But I do appreciate that European cities seem to have applied art to the most mundane of places.

    We've done it here, too, in many places. (It's why I love Pasadena.) I think Jeff's lamenting what my husband calls "Plywood Acres," aka modern suburbs, with their repetitive condos and mini-malls.

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  10. So charming! Available for purchase only by the affluent, perhaps.

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  11. Am I the only one that thinks "Floats and never sinks" is hilarious on the sewer maintenance door??? :)
    V

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  12. This would make a very charming little cafe....perhaps with more seating for sit down dinners in the vaulted room below.....or an antique shop....


    Sean

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  13. You're not the only one, Virginia. And I'm afraid I took Sean's "sit down dinners" comment the same way.

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  14. Yes, Petrea, I was referring specifically to the suburbs. Suzy, there are great buildings in the U.S., but public works facilities in the suburbs are quite boring at best, usually ugly. Can't waste taxpayers' dollars, you know, so make it cheap. There are exceptions.

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  15. There is a visit of the sewers of Paris if anyone is interested.

    Video, price, info here

    http://www.paris.fr/portail/culture/portal.lut?page_id=5885&document_type_id=5&document_id=5943&portlet_id=13165

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