Word: gaudichon
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According to its curator Bruno Gaudichon, in the early '30s people in the mill city were determined to create "the most beautiful swimming pool in France." Architect Albert Baert produced a complex in which all classes mingled, including the factory hands whose homes lacked electricity and running water. They must have appreciated the individual bathtubs and shower cabins as well as the beauty salons, massage rooms and restaurant. Visitors entered through a Romanesque portico, changed in a cabin like a monk's cell and then plunged into a 50-m pool under a giant barrel vault terminated at either...
...19th century, was hit by a slump in the '60s. These days the Roubaisiens who have jobs - unemployment is 14% - tend to work in retail and advertising rather than in factories. Figuring that tourism could be an option for a place that had run short of them, in 1990 Gaudichon persuaded the city to convert the derelict swimming pool into a home for Roubaix's unseen treasures. They included a unique hoard of textile patterns and samples dating back to 1839, as well as an art collection that had been closed to public view since 1940. Gaudichon, named curator...
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