Face Lift

There's a Parisian law requiring buildings to be cleaned every 10 years, thus the inordinate number of structures masked by scaffolding. I've seen a lot of sand blasters at work but I've never seen anything quite like this -- a sandblasting unit on a crane, requiring nothing more than a canopy over the sidewalk to protect passersby from dropping bits of debris. How much nicer for the residents than having the view out the windows obstructed for weeks on end? When I spotted this machine yesterday afternoon, it was clear that work was done for the day; the crane was lowering the unit onto a flat bed truck. Although it's not obvious from these photos, the building behind was a grimey brown with soot colored streaks on one side, a creamy beige with glints of mica on the other.