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2000s: Imagine finding a portrait in a shop that looks just like you!
The Portrait
What you need to know before your trail
While wandering through a Paris auction house, avid collector Pierre-Francois Chaumont is stunned to discover the eighteenth-century portrait of an unknown man who looks just like him.
Much to his delight, Chaumont’s bid for the work is successful, but back at home his jaded wife and circle of friends are unable to see the resemblance. Chaumont remains convinced of it, and as he researches into the painting’s history, he is presented with the opportunity to abandon his tedious existence and walk into a brand new life…
Travel Guide
Paris
Drout Auction House
I had not bid for anything at Drouot Auction House for some time.Auctions are more intoxication than any drink, and , in contrast to a casino, even when you loose you still somehow feel like a winner: the money you had set aside for that lot you’ve missed out on is magically returned to your bank account; in your mind you had already sent it, so when you leave the auction house you feel richer than when you walked in.”
Pierre-Francois Chaumont takes a stroll around the Douot Auction House ad this is one of this favourite things to do. His office isn’t far from here and he spends time looking at at the porcelain and Rosewood chests of drawers, prints, taxidermy and a portrait which bears a striking resemblance to him.
Items are moments, memories of history, culture, personality, troubles times and more:
“But then, had everything we had lived through together just been a misunderstanding? Like an antique that you buy, love and cherish, and which for years makes you think of all the troubled times it has passed through-the Hundred Years War, the French Revolution, the Siege of Moscow-but which you notice one morning is nothing but a vulgar fake made ten years ago?”
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
A short and unassuming book but one which really got to me. A man who loves collecting antiques is ridiculed by his wife who seems to hate everything he brings back home. I think she’d be more impressed if they had a cat and he brought back a dead mouse or something.
Chaumont loves antiques and the stories they tell. He has to hear their story before he knows how to look after them. His desire to hear their story is what really interested me as I love wandering in such shops and imagining the stories each item has to tell. They say if only walls could talk, but I would rather antiques did.He picks up a painting that looks very much like him. I immediately thought ooh Dorian Gray.. but this is a different kind of story about looking within oneself and finding that life can be as quite to change as finding an object in a shop..
A nice quirky read.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Portrait
Author/Guide: Antoine Laurain Destination: Paris Departure Time: 2000s
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