Creepy Defective Casts in the Attic: Sculpture Factory in Paris

One Day on the Way to the Louvre

We were staying at a bed and breakfast somewhere in Paris a few years back with the express purpose of spending a few days looking around the Louvre. The museum is absolutely massive so we had planned out a whole week to see as much as possible.

However, on the very first day of our trip we were walking down the sidewalk through a residential neighborhood and came across what looked like a large house but was completely surrounded by sculpture. There was a sign on the door that we couldn't read, as it was in French of course. The door was opened and there was a front desk person, so we went inside and managed to figure out that it was a factory that reproduced sculpture by scanning and casting it.

I posted about this place not long after I actually went there, but I found a few more images that I had not posted before. You see, they allowed us to have a look around the factory and watch the artists working, but after that we found a staircase leading to the attic which is where we found all of the failed rejects.

I don't really know if we were supposed to go up there, but no one was around so we just kind of sneaked in. Great thing to do in a country that you've never been in, and on your first day. The lady at the desk seemed very nice, though. The employees were mostly indifferent if not slightly annoyed that there were foreigners walking around pointing at everything.

There was something about the context of the dark dingy attic, full of dust and spider webs, that made everything look just a bit eerie. Adding that to the fact that most of the casts were either broken or unfinished just gave it that extra creepiness.

Some of the objects looked as if they had been sitting there for 50 years or longer. I don't know how long this place has been doing this work, but if had to been at least for decades. You don't get that kind of a dust buildup overnight.

These horse heads were pretty cool. There was actually a whole row of them that I didn't manage to photograph. I think there was a problem in the casting process that made them not worth the effort to clean up, so they ended up in the attic. I think you could actually sell these as stylistic.

There were all kinds of these little guys around. It was like a mini graveyard.

We ended up walking around this place for about an hour or so. Every time we thought that we had seen everything, we would come to a door and find a large room full of even more sculpture. It was all very interesting! I think @afturner actually managed to buy something from them, even though they weren't technically a store, but more of a factory. I hope you enjoyed these few images. Thanks for looking!