Paris is Full of Fake Buildings, Here is Why

How many of Paris buildings are fakes? I'm French, I've lived in Paris for 10 years and I'm investigating Paris' fake buildings! Let's uncover their secrets together! :)

Make your travels easier with the Vasco Translator E1. Use my discount code LUCILE10 to save.

--
--

Watch my other cultural commentary videos:
--

Tags: #paris #france #fakebuilding #tinyapartment #parisfrance #byalocal #VascoTranslator #VascoTranslatorE1 #TravelWithVasco #TranslationEarbuds

[rachelbennett]

It IS a crime to tear down beautiful things to make ugly things. I'm glad you still have so many lovely buildings!

[dom-fq]

Those buildings are often used by the metro company to integrate technical equipments such as transformers, power fans etc...

[kaysha]

This is fascinating. Lived 32 years and Paris and never realized that...

[BunnyWatson-kw]

Some of the posh areas in London have buildings like this. From the front it looks like real building, but go down the back alley at the rear, you realize it is a fake house.

[FalcomScott]

You've must have done so much research before posting this video of what's real and fake buildings there in Paris. I've enjoyed this video, and have a beautiful week, Lucile! ❤

[gjdjdtht]

They do this in New York as well. Very fascinating that it is someone’s job to plan and designs these!

[AcmeRacing]

My hometown has a Facebook page, and even now many posts are complaining about "Urban Renewal" when many of the old buildings were torn down to rebuild things with 1970s architecture.

[LivingBobby]

Such a cool video Lucile :D lol, you would never know walking by these buildings they were fake!

[yaowsers]

NYC has these too! I watched a video a few years ago about them. Air vents for the subway. I think it was in the 70s that they tore down the original Penn station in nyc that looked more like Moynahan station now to build penn station and msg. Such a travesty. So now they're in the process of redesigning and renovating Penn station. It's been interesting watching the progress.

[claude_k]

Keeping the old facades and building anew in the back has been popularized in Brussels, Belgium, in the latter part of the 20th century (a practice known as "façadisme" in French), in reaction to Brusselization (in short: building anything anywhere carelessly). It did not originate in Brussles, as there are lots of much older examples, but I believe it is where is has been put in place as a policy first.

[mariusmm]

Datacenter? Interesting... The moment I saw the Google Maps photo, I was thinking it is a vent/AC system for the metro, New York has a lot of fake buildings like this.

[Frogmobile]

Yes, too right my Darling, I was born in Paris in 1952 so i saw it all, all the atrocities (atro city) that you pin point so accurately. Fortunaltely we had André Malraux (a former republican fighter in the Spanish Civil war and an writer and a historian) as a minister for Culture under DeGaulle. He decided to stop this "modernism" madness and undertook the general cleaning of Paris. This meant to wet-sand blast all haussmanian façades and monuments. From dark grey they turned beautiful creamy color, the true hue of the Paris stone. I began to love my city somehow from then... (from Australia)

[gregfaris]

Il paraît que la tour de Montparnasse ne fût que la première d’un projet qui devait en compter une douzaine, mais lorsque la première apparition vit le jour les Parisiens ont réagi avec tant d’horreur que le projet a été stoppé.
De nos jours, on peut déjeuner dans la tour et profiter de la meilleure vue de la ville, non seulement en raison de sa proximité des beaux quartiers de la rive gauche, mais surtout parce que c’est le seul endroit de tout Paris où on ne voit pas la Tour Montparnasse !

[robertopiedimonte]

You made a clip as it was meant when they thought of YouTube. Chapeau.

Fantastic video.
I'm thankful you have really something to say.
I had something to learn.


Ciao

[ebtsolstice]

> "Paris has a network of data centers hidden all around the city for security reasons"
> Proceeds to reveal the exact location of one of them
> 🤣

[roxannedyerart]

Lucile, terrific video. Cities with beautiful architecture will always retain their character as long as the people there respect and preserve beauty, imo. Here in Montreal we have the Old Port; the buildings there are gorgeous. There are neighbourhoods in Montreal and in the surrounding areas that maintain their lovely characteristics. It's wonderful to visit, refreshing and inspiring. But the past few years have been disappointing, in my view, with so many ugly buildings, characterless, dreary blocks, appearing, in what seems to be, out of thin air. I find this trend bleak... Thanks for the video; many solid and inspired notions.

[paul_domici]

Even the fake buildings in Paris are beautiful!!!

[SynnoveJamila]

This was such a fun video! Very informative! :D

[ken]

This was really interesting! Thank you for bringing this to us!

[deltadarling]

I think London has some of these fake facades, too! So funny that it’s been constructed to match the style of the neighborhood.