A Building with ‘garage’ Written on It
Another French railway town, this time Le Lardin St. Lazare in Périgord. The function of this building, despite the word ‘garage’ on the side, remains obscure. The triangular window is the attention-grabber, but the idiosyncratic distribution of the many-sized four-sided windows throughout the structure also gives us pause. Why are there bars on some lower windows and not on others? Is the building under construction or in a state of decay? Is that a balcony door or just a very tall window above the van? And is that a house attached at the end?
I’m tempted to think this gem is in fact a club or a design-firm or something cool like that, and it’s called (lowercase) ‘garage’. Or else, the word ‘garage’ is kind of a descriptive tag or label, as if it describes the style of the structure. So people would say, ‘Hey, that building’s really garage, you know what I mean?.’ The graceful lamp-post stands in front like an overdesigned question mark, as puzzled as we are.