Sunday, November 29, 2009

Restoring


While visiting Saint Germain des Prés last summer I happened upon this young woman
hard at work. Carefully removing years and years of soot and grime from this wall engraved with names. A delicate and time consuming work.

Our friend Chuckeroon at Richmond Upon Thames might know more about what she is doing and using for her work

5 comments:

Owen said...

Wow, quite a job, wonder how they got so totally covered over to begin with... and who were they, all the names ?

Petrea Burchard said...

I love that you wandered to the dark corner and found this young woman working. She was bringing to light names that perhaps have lain hidden for some time, and you, too, bring them to light, to us.

I'd like to know, too, who they were.

Virginia said...

Petrea and Owen,
Oh merci for your comments. I'm pleased that you found these photos as intriguing as I did .
V

Starman said...

Too bad you couldn't have stayed to see the part she finished.
BTW, today's word verification is PRADA.

Chuckeroon said...

Cleaning is deceptively simple. You end up with water, soap and a tooth brush. But before that, you have to analyse the dirt, know the composition of the stone,and control the ph index of the water making it neutral, oh, so slightly acid or oh, os so slightly alkaline, then get hold of loads of volunteers and just scrub...gently.