A little over a year ago, I caught Rodez's historic "Grand Hôtel Broussy" in a good light. I was lucky.Last week, as I passed by on a damp, grey afternoon, the downtown institution wasn't looking so grand:
In fact, I'm wondering if it will ever be "GRAND" again:
I know. No need to press the panic button. Le Grand Hôtel Broussy is only being remodeled, and I'm sure it needs it.
Yet as I saw traces of its bright red past being tossed unceremoniously out its windows, I felt a wave of personal regret. I would never see it in all its delapidated glory.
Or could I glimpse at the interior, before it was too late?
I walked up toward the dusty lobby entrance, where a narrow door was, miraculously, open.
I dared to step in. The lobby was dirty and dreary, with a few pieces of wooden furniture strewn about. An immense dining or breakfast room lay to my right, bereft of furnishings.
Too quickly, a burly worker stomped down the main staircase. He looked at me. I scurried out.
14 comments:
I'm glad you went in and took the last photo. It's beautiful (as is the first one - it's amazing how everything looks prettier against a blue sky). I wonder if they'll keep the mosaic or "remodel" it. I hope they don't replace it with a marble floor or anything like that.
I love reading your blog. It's a piece of journalism I wouldn't have access to otherwise :-)
What a wonderful mosaic floor. I hope it's staying.
The rooms were probably pretty bad to stay in. I hope they keep that great tile work.
Not to worry, I'm sure the mosaic floor is staying. I think the whole building is on the historical register, so I don't think it will lose all of its charm.
Let's just hope they can keep it looking historic and not 'modernize' it too much!
It would help if I remembered what your profile said ('native of Olympia') - of course you lived in Washington! Too many blogs to keep up with!
Salut Betty, I've been reading your blogs and I like them a lot. It's nice to know that other people from Washington State are out and about. :-)
What a change! You were lucky to take this picture before, It;s interesting to see both at the same time to compare.
The first photo is fabulous and the difference is amazing with the second photo.
The tiles do have a certain cracked charm to them. But I am fascinated by the line where the staircase meets the floor. Subsidence or is the lobby on a steep down hill slope? That would have me over in moments after an aperatif...
we had a beautiful song in France saying that "when you see a mermaid die, don't hide your sorrow".
Nous avions une belle chanson en France qui disait "Quand tu vois mourrir une sirène, ne cache pas ta peine'.
Betty I have also a special tenderness toward the old beautiful things.
Betty moi aussi j'ai une tendresse spéciale pour les jolies vieilles choses
kristana
Ooh, you should ask if they're selling some of their better pieces of furniture or that mosaic floor. Sometimes they rip everything out and sell it at auction, or to private buyers, to make way for a completely new look. Recently I was lucky to purchase a 19th-century window from the palace (now hotel) in Versailles where the Versaille Treaty was signed. A little bit of history. Now what I'm going to do with the window remains a mystery. At the moment, it's leaning against a wall in a small bathroom. Maybe someday it will be a window in a home someplace or I could make it into a mirror.
PP, as I said I do think the building is a protected historic monument and that the tile is staying. Let's hope so!
I hope they do not destory the tile entry! In Marseille many beautiufl interiors are torn out...i cannot stand it.
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