Within the atrium of Paris’ Le Bon Marché department store, shoppers pause to gaze at a mirrored cube punctured by a glowing full-pipe skate ramp. The installation is a partnership between Chicago architecture firm MANA and skateboarder Scott Oster, created as the centerpiece of the Los Angeles Rive Gauche exhibition.

Part sculpture, part stage, the modern skate ramp is a draw even when it’s not hosting live performances.

“Le Cube acted as a thought-provoking intersection between sport and sculptural art,” says MANA. “When a performance was occurring inside, the atmosphere was dynamic and stimulating. When it was not being activated, Le Cube sat quietly, luminously reflecting the architecture of its surroundings—warm lights, decorative iron handrails, and the famous crossing escalators of Le Bon Marché.”

The reflections were designed to create an illusion that the full-pipe was “a cylindrical void suspended within the open interior courtyard of the store,” and the mirrored surfaces amplify the displays that surround the cube on multiple levels.

The exhibition brings a little slice of L.A. to one of the world’s most refined cities, with Le Cube specifically referencing the street culture that gives Los Angeles much of its personality.

MANA hid a small access door in the base, eliminating the need for visually disruptive ladders, while safety wires protect the ramp openings almost invisibly. The reflective panels are made of lightweight aluminum to withstand vibration from skating.

Scott Oster says he wanted the piece to be a skateable work of art.

“My inspiration for the Adaptation cube was the photos I saw as a kid in the 70’s skateboard magazines of these massive cement full pipes in the desert,” he tells Le Bon Marché magazine. “My original idea was to find one of these pipes and set it on top of a pedestal, but after some research that was not a viable possibility. That’s when I came up with the idea of building one, and instead of building a full pipe sitting on a pedestal, make a cube with the full pipe inside it. I love the simplicity and form of a circle and a square.”

It seems like proposals to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris came pouring in before the blaze that destroyed its spire and roof was even extinguished. Grappling with devastating damage to a historic and architectural icon, observers around the world immediately began to debate whether the cathedral should be recreated as faithfully as possible in its former image (a serious challenge, considering the contemporary lack of massive old-growth timber) or radically reimagined.

One notable proposal released by Studio NAB takes the latter approach with a visionary reconstruction symbolizing rebirth, new growth and hope for the future. The design recreates Notre Dame’s silhouette in a framework of gold-tone steel and glass, transforming the uppermost levels of the church into a lush greenhouse, an active community space and an educational facility. A new “arrow” spire would house apiaries, producing on a large scale “the honey of Notre Dame de Paris.” The rest of the cathedral beneath this new roof would remain as it has always looked and functioned.

It’s a direct rebuke of the idea that we can or should attempt to recapture the past, adapting instead and acknowledging the need to change along with the world around us.

“On this fire and in the period of crisis that the country and the world are currently going through, we have the chance to build a place of reference where conservation, enrichment of an exceptional heritage and taken into account the challenges of societies ecology and equal opportunities. Protecting the living being reintroducing biodiversity, educating consciences and being in solidarity, all are symbols, faithful to the values of France and those of the church, that we could defend and promote for this project.”

“This is the symbol of acceptance of the course of history and the metaphorical illustration that this ‘forest’ became burnt wood, can serve as a cradle to the new vegetation,” say the architects. “The design will feed the all-important conversation and add an element of reflection as to how the building could be transformed to focus on issues concerning today’s society. The greenhouse is imagined as a place to enable to professional reintegration of the poor by learning urban agriculture, horticulture and permaculture while connecting children to nature and educating them through workshops.”

It’s an interesting way to approach the problem of restoration, and one that will undoubtedly stir controversy. But Studio NAB’s proposal creates a ghostly yet optimistic memory of the lost parts of the cathedral, maintaining the silhouette to which Paris has grown so accustomed, without introducing any garishly contrasting contemporary elements. You can safely bet that proposals recalling Daniel Libeskind’s highly controversial Royal Ontario Museum Extension are forthcoming, along with calls to be far more conservative, using modern technology like engineered wood to replace the burned beams and reinforce damaged structural elements.

Though it comes early in the game, Studio NAB’s proposal will likely end up looking like a compromise between these two extremes by the time France’s competition to redesign Notre Dame selects its winner.

Shoppers at Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann can climb to new heights within the building’s domed atrium, bouncing around on a suspended rainbow net and gazing up at the stained glass cupola. Set nearly 40 feet above the ground, the the playful neon net is part of an installation called “Funorama” celebrating the return of summer.

Featuring walkways that stretch out to adjacent balconies, the net invites shoppers to cut loose and have a good time, bringing an air of excitement to the department store flagship.

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Playing on nostalgia, “Funorama” also features a variety of “fun zones” including vintage arcade games and other retro-themed attractions. The net, however, is unquestionably the star of the program. Those brave enough to venture out onto its surface get to enjoy a whole new way to see the art Nouveau-style department store, which opened in 1912. Located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, near Opera Garnier, the 753,000-square-foot store features panoramic views of the city.

Entrance to the bouncy net attraction is free, and it will remain in place through June 9th, 2019.

Photos by Benoit Florençon

For a few precious hours outside the Louvre, the ground around the iconic Pyramid appeared to be in the process of excavation, revealing a hidden portion of the structure. Rendered on paper in black and white, “The Secret of the Great Pyramid” is the second optical illusion involving the Louvre Pyramid by French artist Jeane Rene (better known as JR), and it took a team of 400 volunteers and 2,000 segments of paper to create.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Louvre Pyramid’s creation on March 30th, 1989, “The Secret of the Great Pyramid” stretches to fill the entire courtyard outside of the 12th century museum.

Sadly, it didn’t last. Visitors demonstrated why we can’t have nice things when they tore up the installation within hours of its completion, and now there’s nothing left of it but a few scraps blowing in the wind. But that was all part of JR’s plan. The artist knew the piece was ephemeral, and that being made of paper meant it had a very limited life span. Before its installation, he predicted that some people would destroy the piece unintentionally with their feet, while others would rip pieces away to take home.

“Once pasted, the art piece lives on its own,” he writes. “The sun dries the light glue and with every step, people tear pieces of the fragile paper. The process is all about participation of volunteers, visitors, and souvenir catchers. This project is also about presence and absence, about reality and memories, about impermanence.”

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But for a moment in time, this massive optical illusion was certainly epic, and thankfully, plenty of people caught it on camera while it was still intact. Previously, JR made the pyramid “disappear” in a work of large-scale urban camouflage.

JR is known for his black and white photographic public art installations, typically tailored to the environment in which they’re placed. Sometimes that means placing the leaping figures of Olympic athletes atop buildings in Brazil or taking portraits of the elders of a community and making them impossible to ignore; sometimes it means making overt political statements like a bi-national meal at the United States-Mexico border or towering an image of a Mexican toddler over the border wall for guards to contemplate.

The front facade of the Mundo a Vapor train museum in Canela, Brazil recreates a spectacular Parisian train wreck from 1895 in steamingly accurate detail.

No doubt the worst – or at least, the most embarrassing – day in the history of the Chemins de fer de l’Ouest railway was October 22 of 1895, the date of the Montparnasse Derailment. Captured for posterity through the miracle of photography, this epic urban train wreck saw the twelve-car Granville to Paris and Montparnasse Express train enter the Gare Montparnasse station at too high a speed, suffer a brake failure, smash through safety buffers, careen 100 feet across the station concourse, and finally burst through the building’s outer wall, falling 30 feet into the street below. Ta da!

Steam locomotive No. 721 was hauling 10 coaches and 131 passengers at the time. The only fatality of the spectacular crash, however, was a woman in the street who was struck by displaced masonry while waiting for her husband. Though CF de l’Ouest was absorbed into the French national rail system in 1909, their day of infamy lives on, day after day, thousands of miles away in Brazil. Flickr member RV1864 has posted several photographs of the accident and the subsequent cleanup, two of which are presented above.

Troll Steam Ahead

Fast-forward 96 years and fast- er, sideways 5,837 miles to Canela, a charming town of 40,000 set jewel-like in the Gaucho Highlands of Rio Grande do Sul. Canela (Portuguese for “cinnamon”) is a popular tourist destination boasting several noteworthy attractions including Mundo a Vapor… the “World of Steam” train museum and theme park, which opened in 1991.

Exterior Loco Motive

It’s hard to miss Mundo a Vapor, just like it was hard to miss a major train station in Paris… we’re looking at you, engine driver Guillaume-Marie Pellerin. Unlike the old (demolished in 1969) Gare Montparnasse train terminal, over-achieving locomotive No. 721 is a feature, not a bug… and yes, the replica engine proudly displays its ID ‘cuz if one’s gonna troll, might as well troll to the max. These images from Flickr members Rosanetur and Solon Aguiar (solonneto) date from November of 2017 and September of 2012, respectively.

Steam Dream Team

Mundo a Vapor isn’t your average train museum and calling it a “theme park” is a bit of a stretch – the only real “ride” is a small steam train that, perhaps fortunately, does NOT crash through the second-story wall. What’s up with that? Here comes the history! Back in the 1920s, Ernesto Urbani ran a small business servicing and repairing the steam engines used at many of the local sawmills. Urbani’s sons Omar, Benito and Hermes spent their childhoods in the shop, learning all about steam engines and crafting miniature versions in their spare time. The boys – now retired gents – opened Mundo a Vapor in 1991 as both a tribute to their father and an homage to their love of all things steam.

Iron Horseplay

As such, Mundo a Vapor isn’t so much a museum of railroads as it is a showcase of the Urbani’s many handmade steam engines and miniature mechanical devices. For example, one steam-driven machine presses pulp into usable paper while another spits out pot-metal souvenirs cast from molten solder. Not exactly thrilling but hey – there’s always the replica crashed locomotive out front for photo opportunities. Be sure to snap the shutter when the stack belches thick white smoke. Flickr members Contato Dearaujo and Cesar Cardoso captured these scenes (and our lead image) in April of 2014 and June of 2011, respectively.

South Polar Express

Canela (along with its sister city Gramado) lies on the so-called “Rota Romantica” and it’s popular with tourists year-round. Successive waves of immigrants from the Azores, Germany and Italy have influenced the town’s architecture, not to mention its overall European character. Snow often falls during the winter, prompting extensive Christmastime events and activities. Someone better tell Santa that reindeer can’t fly but steam locomotives can…  for a few seconds. Flickr member Anderson Rancan snapped some of the holiday disaster fiasco fun in late 2008.

Keepin’ It Rail

Flickr member Jeff Belmonte brings us these night-time images of Mundo a Vapor’s crash-tacular facade taken in early 2006. Flying down to Rio – or a tad farther, to the Sao Paulo region – isn’t an option for many in the Northern Hemisphere but thanks to Mundo a Vapor you can pay a five-minute visit to the museum via this video. In the meantime, and to paraphrase Bogie from Casablanca, “We’ll always have the Paris trainwreck” thanks to those masters of steam (and trolling), the brothers Urbani.