Hi all,
The Department Store is called
BHV. Whilst the rest of the store was nothing to write home about, the bricolage section was terrific.
BTW, I've found out why the Paris hotel accepts farts. The word PETS exists in both languages. In English it means domestic animals, and in French it means bottom burps. So when Google looks at the page it translates the French into PETS and then, for some reason, translates again into FARTS. The manager was a bit non-plussed when I showed him, I had to explain what a fart was. At least he had a sense of humour!
Now for some pics.
There is a nice collection of furniture in the Musee d'Orsay. Unfortunately flash photos are not allowed, so in typical museum lighting exposures are far too long, but nevertheless I think they can show us some interesting features.
This is a 19th C chair, but I don't think it would take much to turn it into a very nice contemporary design:
This is another from the same collection:
I'd forgotten how to take voice clips on the camera,and didn't figure it out until a couple of days before the end of the holiday, so I can't remember where most of these others were
This was in a restorer's window, so we can see them naked:
The cutouts in this chair all have a raised edge, like cockbeading:
The roll-top on this is solid, not tamboured. Did't get to see how well it rolled though!
Now is this weird or is this weird? The two opposite-corner legs are different! Two have flats and two don't. It's not an injury, it was made like that in the 17thC.
This was in the Hotel l'Univers in Tours. Not to my taste, well none of this is, but you still have to marvel at the craftsmanship:
This was in one of the many Chateaux in the area. The top is just three boards:
The buildings have shutters. This is nice example of a shutter. The braces are nicely toed in and everything is bevelled off nicely, too.
This medieval building had some interesting pegged tenons and mason's mitres. The timber must have been incredibly green for it to have shrunk that much, don't you think? Either that or they drilled the holes for the pegs with the offset going the wrong way!
Finally, this is a typical timberyard. The stuff I could see close up was all oak. No fence, just piled high by the side of the road.
That's it. Sorry some are blurred, but without a tripod, flash is essential, really. I hope it was worth the download.