Monday, September 19, 2011

Before and after at La Conciergerie




La Conciergerie is a very famous place in Paris. Not only is it one of the most beautiful monuments in the city, but on top of that it is known for having "sheltered" Marie-Antoinette for several months, before she was beheaded on the Place de la Concorde (Place de la Révolution at that time). La Conciergerie is also constantly covered in scaffolding (I suppose that's the price to pay for a monument that was built around the 12th century! Anyway, right now, Samsung commissioned French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac to make a huge fresco on it. I took these photos a few days apart from each others. See more here and in this video.

10 comments:

  1. Like the way they've wrapped the building—and I can't really object to a huge Galaxy Tab ad when they've at least made it so fitting for the site (and maybe it helps pay for the renovations, eh?). Cool video too.

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  2. Thanks again for pictures in our favorite city, Eric! Please change the link from http://www.parisdailyphoto.com/www.samsung-microsites.fr/conciergerie/public/
    to
    http://www.samsung-microsites.fr/conciergerie/public/
    for those who might not know how to fix it themselves.
    Merci,
    -Jeff

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  3. Very impressive. If it helps pay for renovations and upkeep, I'm all for it. (If it doesn't, I'll come back and say something else!)

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  4. The fresco representing the old building behind the scaffoldind was already there since a while.
    Only the Samsung ad is recent.
    And personnally, I think it was better without the ad ;-(

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  5. That is interesting, that even while renovating, the Parisians are concerned with how the scaffolding looks! Nice job, Samsung, but even nicer job, Eric!

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  6. Yes Christie, I confirm the Parisians (I'm one of them) are concerned with how it looks, as odd as it may sound...
    Well, not so odd, because it is a question of love and/or simply a question of life about what we cherish in our city.
    The video is interesting. I would not have found it by myself... You are always very helpful (as you may already know it... of course).

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  7. Fabulous! I never would have guessed that they would hand paint the advertisement. I assumed it was pre-printed then hung on the building. This is pretty cool. And, yes, an ad may be somewhat unsightly, but it helps pay for the renovation. There is much of this in Venice and elsewhere, and we must accept the need for the financing of monuments. It is better than watching them crumble.

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  8. By the way, regarding yesterday's post of the mannequin store: I always look for that store when I arrive at the Metro Reamur-Sebastopol, from CDG and Gare du Nord, and walk down rue Reamur to the apartment. The Monoprix and the mannequin store say "you're back!"

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  9. To me it looks even more fairy-tale than usual in the gauze. But, why drape huge areas with no scaffolding? Cool to see them painting - I'm shocked that its hand painted and wild how you can see how one six inch hand movement with the brush would be noticed in this huge image. I don't mind the ad if it supports the restoration, but, too bad it doesn't have a more original tag line and - is this just a copy of someone else's painting? Thanks for our two-fer!!

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  10. Excellent..really enjoyed this as I didn't know that it was under the scaffolding right now!! Merci!!

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