1. Once one of the world’s largest and most beautiful department stores, today hiding inside a Parisian office building
Founded in 1856 as the Palais de la Nouveauté, Dufayel became one of the world’s largest department stores, famous for selling furniture and household goods on credit. At its height, the business employed approximately 15,000 people.
The store closed in 1930. The premises subsequently became offices, notably for BNP, before their latest transformation.
The former Grands Magasins Dufayel in Paris’s 18th arrondissement has recently undergone a major restoration and conversion into a modern office complex called WOW. As of November 2026, the redevelopment is substantially complete, but the property is no longer a department store or public shopping destination. It is being marketed as premium commercial office space.
The staircase, a sweeping, bifurcated stair with ornate iron balustrades, one of the most theatrical interior features of Dufayel, is one of the key historic elements that has allegedly survived. The catch is that, like the rest of the converted interior, it is now inside a private office building, so it is not normally open to the public for visits. The recent redevelopment states that the “escalier patrimonial” / historic staircase was restored, alongside the façade and the Eiffel-style metal structure, rather than removed. VINCI Immobilier likewise says the project aimed to preserve notable elements including the stairs and part of the original floors while modernizing the building for office use.
Recent descriptions of the completed WOW project say that this historic staircase was renovated “à l’identique” — essentially restored in kind — and remains at the heart of the building. But I’ve yet to see any photographic evidence of that and I have serious doubts, though the staircase was perhaps lost long before current redevelopments took shape. A challenge for some Paris-based sleuths to confirm?! If I have time this week, I may pop out of the shop myself to check.
Found on Wikipedia.
2. Traditional wooden architecture downtown in the ‘Garden City’ of Georgetown, Guyana, South America.
Found in Reddit Architecture.
3. This amazing London house for sale
Built around 1700, just 34 years after the Great Fire of London, Number 1 Goodwin’s Court a converted haberdasher shop, is now a freehold London home, celebrating well over 300 years of existence with the completion of its painstaking ten-year revival. Part of a row of Grade II* Listed buildings within the Covent Garden Conservation Area, it’s a rare survivor of a building type reflecting the conditions of London’s Georgian working-classes and a living piece of London’s rich history as well as more recent fame as the inspiration for Ollivanders Wand Shop in the Harry Potter film franchise.
A piece of London history for sale in Covent Garden. Just need a mere £1,595,000. More information on the Unique Property Company.
4. Vintage movie theater concession stands
Found on The Academy Tumblr.
5. The Stanley Kubrick Auction of the century is coming
The live auction will take place at Bonhams 101 New Bond Street, London on Wednesday 3 February 2027, with an online auction ending on 4 February from 12pm. The auction will be preceded by a free public exhibition of the full sale at Bonhams New Bond Street, London (18 January – 3 February 2027). Get a sneak preview of the collection on sale here.
6. Pure Nostalgia: The Oral History of ‘That Thing You Do!’
If like us, you rank Tom Hanks’ “That Thing You Do” as one of your favourite feel-good movies, you’ll love this ode to the film that turns 25 this year, including lots of fun trivia and interviews with the cast & crew.
Find it on The Ringer.
7. Once Upon a Time in Harlem
It has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
8. Kuphar Boats of Iraq
Known also as a kuphar and by various alternate spellings, the quffa was described in the 5th century BCE by Herodotus, who stated that they were built in Armenia for one-way trading trips on the Euphrates. In his account, they were round, built of willow frames and covered with leather. The insides were protected by straw. They carried wooden casks of wine from Armenia to Babylon, along with at least one donkey and two paddlers.
More found here.
9. The Piganino
A conjectural musical instrument using a keyboard as to produce sound from pigs by poking them.
Louis XI of France was said to have challenged Abbé de Baigne to develop such an instrument, believing that it was impossible to do so. The Abbé, a well known constructor, anecdotally accepted the order against payment. The instrument was a variant of an organ using a keyboard to pick the pigs, which were sorted sizewise.
That brutal monarch, Louis XI of France, is said to have constructed, with the assistance of the Abbé de Baigne, an instrument designated a “pig organ,” for the production of natural sounds. The master of the royal music, having made a very large and varied assortment of swine, embracing specimens of all breeds and ages, these were carefully voiced, and placed in order, according to their several tones and semitones, and so arranged that a key-board communicated with them, severally and individually, by means of rods ending in sharp spikes. In this way a player, by touching any note, could instantly sound a corresponding note in nature, and was enabled to produce at will either natural melody or harmony! The result is said to have been striking, but not very grateful to human ears.
Found on Wikipedia.
10. Having a BBQ on top of a Submarine
Redditor shanbuscus found a photo of his dad on top of HMAS Onslow, a diesel submarine operated by Australia’s navy from 1968 to 1999. The boat is now on display and open to visitors at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.
Found on Reddit
11. Key Guns
From at least the 17th century untill the mid 1800s, some lock makers integrated guns into lock keys for use by jailers. The idea was that if the prisoner tried any funny stuff, the jailer could fire a round through the lock at the prisoner. Some of the key guns were very basic, requiring the jailer to use a a cigar, cigarette or match to ignite a touchhole, while others used sophisticated percussion cap and flintlock mechanisms.
Found on Pinterest.
12. Leonor Fini’s Train Journeys
More about this Forgotten Bohemian Queen of the Paris Art World.
13. Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroeks pent 30 years people-watching and cataloging how they dress
“People are not always aware of their desire to sub-classify,” said Versluis. The two have made those sub-classifications the basis of their three-decade-long art project, which now exceeds 200 groups arranged by visual likeness. Each category features 12 individual portraits organized in a grid, named and arranged with precision.
The book is available here.
