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| image as on Google Streetview |
Along the northern French west coast, directly south of the large port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, lies Le Portel, a municipality with approximately 8,800 inhabitants (January 2022).
South of the city, parallel to the coast, there is the Rue de Cap, a rural street with at number 36 a house that has a special allure, because it has been abundantly decorated with shells, both inside and outside.
As can be seen in the image above, the house is separated from the road by an elongated shell decorated wall.
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| image as on website waymarking |
Life and works
The shell decorations were added by Paul Roger (1923-2020), when he was a resident of the house. The project began in 1984, when he had just retired.
That year he got a visit from a brother-in-law. When they were walking on the beach they saw all kinds of shells lying around and his brother-in-law suggested that Roger could do something with these items in terms of decorating his home.
Roger thought that this was a bit crazy, but still worth a try, and so he got to work.
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| image as on Google Streetview |
Crazy or not, the project would take ten years. It was also quite a job because Paul Roger sorted the tens of thousands shells by size and by color, pink, gray, or white. The large shells formed the frames and the small ones were glued inside the frames.
Various parts of the interior of the house have been also decorated with shells. This article does not have any images of the interior, but the video below includes views of various places inside the house.
After Paul Roger died in 2020 the house was sold. The new owners kept the decorations on the outside walls, but probably removed the decorations in the interior.
Documentation
* Article (undated) on website Waymarking
*Article (August 2014) in French magazine France Infor, includes a video (2 minutes)
Video
* Video (2014) in magazine France Info referred above
Paul Roger
Maison en coquillages
36 rue du Cap
62480 Le Portel, dept Pas-de-Calais, region Hauts-de-France, France
can be seen from the street
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