Emmanuelle Ducros 8:56 a.m., February 1, 2024
Every morning after the 8:30 a.m. news, Emmanuelle Ducros reveals to listeners her “Journey into absurdity”, from Monday to Thursday.
The Pavillon des Sources by Marie Curie is making waves again. Emmanuel Ducros told the beginning of the story a few weeks ago.
On January 4, exactly, with less than a week remaining to save this building from destruction. The sources pavilion is one of the three 19th century buildings which constituted the research laboratories of Marie Curie, one of the cradles of nuclear science. It is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, a stone's throw from the Pantheon. He was doomed to destruction. The Curie Cancer Research Institute needs the location to build a building. There was a strong mobilization. Stéphane Bern rebelled in the columns of Le Figaro
Lovers of Parisian heritage, all those who are keen to preserve the memory of Marie Curie were outraged with him. They appealed to the Minister of Culture to stop the excavators.
Minister who was then Rima Abdul Malak. Which had suspended the demolition while finding a solution. What was the surprise of all those who hoped that this story would be over with the arrival at the Ministry of Culture of Rachida Dati, who had taken up the cause of the pavilion when she was still elected to Paris. She announced yesterday that the pavilion would be saved.
But hang in there. It will be dismantled stone by stone, or rather brick by brick, then rebuilt “a few dozen meters from its initial location” according to Rachida Dati. Classified AFTER its move and “valued in an ambitious museum project”, as they say in the jargon of the ministries. And the office building will see the light of day. “A way to bring together two major issues, the preservation of memory and that of the future of cancer research”, says the minister
The idea made the defenders of the place jump.
Defenders of the Marie Curie heritage are furious. They feel betrayed. They hoped to find in Rachida Dati an alternative to the dilettantism of the current majority for the protection of the city. They are at their expense. They don't believe in reassembly.
First, because the decision does not belong to the Ministry of Culture which has moved forward a little. The museum is managed by a private foundation and by the CNRS.
Then, because several Parisian monuments have already paid the price of these sleight of hand, the Batignoles railway hall, a beautiful iron and wood building from 1840, dismantled to install the Martin Luther King park was put and piece then left to rot in the open air. It ended up on the scrapheap and was never reassembled despite promises. Fountains, dismantled at the Chapel door during work, destroyed
It seems from another time, this wandering building.
An American solution, as when the American art dealer Barnard bought monasteries in Europe, had them dismantled, transported by boat, and rebuilt in the United States. You can see several of them in New York. But that was in 1913. Since then, we have made a little progress in heritage preservation. No one anymore thinks that a place of history is a pile of stones that are stored where they do not disturb...