Poissy is 20 minutes from Paris. There you can find the extraordinary Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier. A master piece that was about to be destroyed in the 50's! It's my second visit here and it is still one of my favorite buildings. La Chapelle de Ronchamp, at the time when the outdoor bells ring, is also a fabulous building by the swiss architect. Poissy was the town where the king Louis IX (Saint Louis) was born in 1214; this is why Villa Savoye is located rue Blanche de Castille, the king's mother's name. The king Saint Louis died in 1270 in Tunis during the 8th crusade, which hopefully failed.

In the 1920's, Le Corbusier wanted to destroy 5 arrondissements of the old Paris and build what we call now 'barres', immense longitudinal buildings. His vision became a reality when France built hundred of tours & barres in the suburbs after WWII. An architectural dead end: all the world witnessed what happened in this environment in november 2005.

The spirit of Le Corbusier and Saint Louis is still alive and intersects in Poissy. When the king died, he had almost become a murderer, crossing the ocean for the last crusade. In the early XXth century, the saint of light and architectural perfection created in his mind, what later became ghettos for the same sub mediterranean victims as Saint Louis! As we say in France, "qui fait l'ange fait la bête". A vision shouldn't come to life when it concerns the others and when it's not sure that it talks god's tongue.