Trompe

A few months back I mentioned the work being done in our apartment building's entry. I finally remembered to snap some pictures of the finished work when I went down to dump the recycling.

[beware: tangent] Even though France is far far ahead of the US in many environmental issues, their recycling programs are generally in their infancy. While our building does have weekly pickup of recycling bins, if you want to recycle your glass, you have to haul it several blocks to a community glass recycling station, a giant egg-shaped thing squatting on a street corner. Recycling bins are non-existent in most public spaces (e.g. parks) where you would expect to find them in the US. [end tangent]

Anyway, here are a couple of photos of the trompe l'oeil painting on the doors that hide the utility storage and the garbage bins. I was worried that they might look cheesy, but I think the artistes did a pretty nice job.

You might for a half-second believe that our courtyard houses a garden with olive and citrus trees, rather than some rolling garbage bins, some external elevator shafts, the back end of a Petit Casino, and 150 years' worth of pigeon poop.