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I like it when architects create buildings that stand out through their simplicity. This Seeko’o Hotel in Bordeaux, created by Atelier King Kong is a good example.

Find many more photos (inside and outside) here. [Via NotCot]

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Sam van Olffen is an artist in Montpellier, who calls himself a “humanoid of thirty-three who loves ducks, the H-bomb, and cathedrals“. He also makes great steampunk art, of which you find many examples on his blog.

From the always fascinating BibliOdyssey blog: Histoire des Oiseaux

“François Nicolas Martinet engraved illustrations of birds for books by some of the most influential ornithologists in 18th-century France. Born in 1731, Martinet was trained as an engineer and draftsman. Engraving illustrations for books probably began as a secondary profession, but as his popularity and output grew […]

French photographer Marianne Maric about her lamp girls:

These “lamp-girls” were first conceived as an illustration of the woman as a thing conveyed by the “entertainment world,” but gradually ascending to a state of consciousness. These photographs were part of a broader vision: once the costume was finished, the “living” model put it on and took […]

New York born artist Tom Sachs is something of a troublemaker on the art scene. Focused on critiquing fashion and street cultures, he manipulates our ideas of consumption, branding, commercial imagery and objects of money and power. Tom Sachs addresses the mania around fashion, attempting to change viewer’s perceptions of precious items and revered icons, […]

This serene portrait of Carla Bruni was created by an as yet unknown photoshop artist in a Rembrandt Paintings contest on FreakingNews. And in case you think Carlita looks a bit pregnant — it’s just a beer belly.
Click for bigger | View original painting

Robert Doisneau is probably best known for his famous The Kiss at the Hotel photo, but I like this — near surrealistic — picture a lot, too. It dates from approx. 1971:

The statue still exist, and those kids must now be in their forties.
Via Vintage Photo | Discover dozens more Doisneau photos

Another fun project by FilthyLuker on deviantART:

Visit the Gallery | Previously on Frogsmoke: House with tentacular cancer

deviantART user FilthyLuker, in collaboration with Pedro Estrellas, created this awesome “Octo-pied Building” in France (click for bigger). He calls it “a house with tentacular cancer”. Find more of his work here.
Via Neatorama.

Sébastien Le Prestre, better known as Vauban [wiki], was the foremost military engineer of the 17th century, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and in breaking through them. Just 300 years after his death, a dozen of his works has been added to the list of Unesco Heritage sites.
L’Express has a nice […]

It’s the fourth of July all over the world, but for Americans it’s a special day, celebrating independence and freedom (although some may argue that a lot of liberties have gone lost in the past seven years).
The Statue of Liberty was a present from the French, to mark the Centennial of the American Declaration […]

A nearly 5-minute long sequence of a 20-year young Catherine Deneuve, walking through the streets of London. Repulsion (1965, wiki) was Roman Polanski’s first English language film, and is widely considered a masterpiece. And, 43 years on, Deneuve is still as stunning as ever.
Via Video Sift

Paris-born Sophie Delila has been involved with music most of her young life. She started playing the piano at an early age, began to write songs at twelve, and recorded her own vocals at fifteen.

She left France to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston (MA), and started performing in New York City, […]

Nicolas Sarkozy’s father Pal (full name Pál Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa) is apparently an artist:

With a mixture of paint and photoshop he created this surrealist portrait of his son with an earring in the shape of the Légion d’honneur medal. The work, according to daddy Sarko, “depicts all Nicolas’ life up to now”. Except for that […]

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French photoshop artist apraxine created this graphic, inspired by Maurits Escher’s 1935 lithograph Hand with Reflecting Sphere [view original]. The remastered version shows a French boules (or pétanque) player, and the sphere has become a boule. It was one of the entries in the Escher Drawings contest on FreakingNews.