The secret of the Butte Bergeyre
Apr 10, 2021 22:08:53 GMT
Post by kerouac2 on Apr 10, 2021 22:08:53 GMT
I am foolish enough sometimes to think that I know Paris very well after having lived here for 48 years but I am regularly amazed at how little I really know. For example, today I was reading a short article about Jean-Paul Goude, a photographer and "event designer" of reknown. Outside of France, he is probably best known for being the companion of Grace Jones for about ten years and creating numerous impossible images of her before one could even use computer graphics for such things. In later years, he created the image of Kim Kardashian holding a spraying champagne bottle whose contents arched over her to land in a champagne glass on her giant butt. (Yes, computer assistance existed by then.)
Anyway, the article was about a minor problem that Goude is facing. He bought a house in the 19th arrondissement a few years ago for 2.2 million euros, right next to his current house. It was built in 1933 by an Austrian architect but was abandoned about 20 years ago. He was going to renovate it, but it turns out that it must be torn down and rebuilt, something that will cost an additional 2.2 million euros. It has a fantastic view of Montmartre and Sacré Coeur on one side and a view of the Eiffel Tower on the horizon on the other side.
But where the hell is it? I had the name of the street so I looked it up to locate it. It's right next to the Buttes Chaumont, behind the huge Hôpital Fondation Edmond de Rothschild which faces a corner of the park. All I had to do was go around the back to find the street. But rue Georges Lardennois is no ordinary street. It twists like a snake. Clearly some climbing would be involved.
Also, just walking around the hospital was a much longer distance than I would have imagined. Whatever this place was, it was cut off from the world. I actually visited somebody in the hospital once. Even though it is mostly an eye hospital, it also does back pain and things like that. My first boss at the airline was in there for a couple of weeks, and I went there to get some instructions on running the office. The hospital staff was not totally happy with the fact that he preferred to remain naked in bed (he was English of course), and he enjoyed annoying them.
End of digression.
Anyway, the article was about a minor problem that Goude is facing. He bought a house in the 19th arrondissement a few years ago for 2.2 million euros, right next to his current house. It was built in 1933 by an Austrian architect but was abandoned about 20 years ago. He was going to renovate it, but it turns out that it must be torn down and rebuilt, something that will cost an additional 2.2 million euros. It has a fantastic view of Montmartre and Sacré Coeur on one side and a view of the Eiffel Tower on the horizon on the other side.
But where the hell is it? I had the name of the street so I looked it up to locate it. It's right next to the Buttes Chaumont, behind the huge Hôpital Fondation Edmond de Rothschild which faces a corner of the park. All I had to do was go around the back to find the street. But rue Georges Lardennois is no ordinary street. It twists like a snake. Clearly some climbing would be involved.
Also, just walking around the hospital was a much longer distance than I would have imagined. Whatever this place was, it was cut off from the world. I actually visited somebody in the hospital once. Even though it is mostly an eye hospital, it also does back pain and things like that. My first boss at the airline was in there for a couple of weeks, and I went there to get some instructions on running the office. The hospital staff was not totally happy with the fact that he preferred to remain naked in bed (he was English of course), and he enjoyed annoying them.
End of digression.