Yumi2004

Friday, May 13, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

French billionaire Francois Pinault announced this week that, fed up with delays and bureaucratic hassles, he was calling off a project to build a $190 million art museum near Paris to house his collection of modern art. He will instead install the paintings in an 18th-century palazzo in Venice. France will be the poorer for it, both because of the cultural loss and the loss of investment that will now not be made in rehabilitating the site--a derelict Renault factory on an island in the Seine.

Yes, the French media talked a lot about it (well, they didn't mention XANA to be honest ;-)), but I'm a bit surprised that this news crossed the Atlantic!

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It's news to me, and very interesting. I sort of wish he had succeeded in using the ol' usine -- I sure don't want it to be torn down!
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wow, that's news to me too. and i had no idea that the old Renault factory was in plans for destruction. from the pictures that i've seen of it, it looked more functional and alive than ever.

LeDix - The factory was already torn down. I think they did it last fall. I wasn't aware that there were any plans for the island, but then again, I haven't been paying attention. I think they should make a park there. Wouldn't that be cool?

A park would definately be nice. They should put something there, since it is a rather large island sitting there in the middle of the Seine.

Knowing that it's torn down - that gave me an idea. For one of Shadowbot's fanfic episode concepts, there could be a scenario where the government planned to tear down the factory and zone the land for something new. Then our friends need to work against a XANA attack and the discovery of the super-calculator by an employee at the same time. In the end, they somehow convince/get the government not to tear down the factory, similarly to how Ulrich convinced Finson not to use the factory for his movie in End of Take.

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Already torn down? How depressing!
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That was a cool old building. I liked the way those windows made it look like the bridge of a ship cruising down (or up?) the river.
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yeah, it really is too bad . the old usine was pretty cool, and i thought that there might be a chance i could see it in person one day , but oh well. at least lycée Lakanal is still there to be visited!
maybe we'll discover that the factory will also have been torn down in season 2, but i think that that's probably a long shot; it would really make things difficult for the group.

The factory is already half destroyed :(

If you want to see it, you should come quickly.

Here are some sites I've dug up in my many adventures. These contain pictures of Boulogne-Billancourt

http://homepage.mac.com/peint/zone-tour/index.htm

http://www.jcballot.com/collection.php?col=52&page=1

http://www.boulognebillancourt.com/