Paris and I ~ 'It's A Bum Wrap'

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ It's A Bum Wrap ~

Bum Wrap, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

Tweet
It's difficult to know just how authentic some of these great shop signs actually are. This one seems to be desperately trying to be taken as old but I'm pretty dubious. It seems more Pirates of the Caribbean than Passage de la Convention to me. It looks great though and is tucked away in one of those little passages in the artisanal area between Bastille and Nation.

The happily tapping chappy is obviously an upholsterer, and although I was musing a while back about how on earth these places manage to keep cloth under their bums, The Family had some old chairs redone the other week, and looking at the prices I start to see why.

It's a fairly old métier these days, and the specific, if not particularly transferable skills needed to do a good job are no doubt considerable. Like getting the stuffing just right, banging in a ton of tacks just so and not actually damaging the woodwork in the process. Plus keeping the certainly demanding clients happy. The latter could do with a bit of a relooking too come to think of it. The woodwork I mean.

I'm including a couple of pics of two of the newly garbed items, which cost the kingly sum of more than a thousand euros a piece. The guy did turn them upside down to show us that he'd even replaced the bottom bit of cloth too, so I guess it was worth it.

The baby accoutrements are courtesy of my sixteen month old son, who is considering these late additions carefully, and assessing the likelihood of getting yelled at if he decides they would be a good place to rest his half'masticated banana and saliva treat for a few minutes.

I'd have bought myself a nice big sofa from Conforama or something for a tenth of the price personally, and been much happier than perched on these awkward things, although we are assured that the stuffing will settle down after a year or so, depending on the amount of derrière time they receive.

Louis XIV wouldn't you say, what? Sorry, just trying out some of my newly-found ignorance still fresh from my visit to the Musée Carnavalet last weekend. I saw some there that looked a bit like these anyway. Can't say they do much for me functionally or aesthetically, but each to their own, eh?

JOIN SAB IN PARIS FOR A UNIQUE PHOTO TOUR!

___________________________________________________________________________________
© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.