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Stunning Paris pool immortalised in film 'Amélie' about to reopen

The Local France
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Stunning Paris pool immortalised in film 'Amélie' about to reopen
Remi Mathis/WikiCommons

The Piscine des Amiraux, the stunning art deco swimming pool immortalised in the classic Paris film "Amélie", is to reopen to the public this month after a two-year, 10-million-euro makeover.

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The municipal pool, situated in a backstreet in a very untouristy part of the 18th arrondissement of the capital, was built by the architect Henri Sauvage and first opened its doors in 1930.
 
It lies in the bowels of an eight-storey apartment building that features stepped balcony terraces and facades covered in the same white tiles used in the Paris metro.
 
Sauvage, who also designed the La Samaritaine department store building on rue de Rivoli, initially wanted a cinema to be built where the pool is but was overruled by the city hall, which had commissioned the building for social housing.
 
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Piscine Amiraux. AFP. 
 
The pool has featured in several movies, most notably in the 2001 film "Amélie," by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a whimsical tale of a young Parisian woman, played by Audrey Tautou, who sets out to improve the lives of those around her.
 
But in recent years the ageing pool, officially listed as an historic monument since 1991, had fallen into disrepair and needed major renovation and modernising.
 
The 33-metre pool has now been demolished and rebuilt exactly as its architect had originally conceived it.
 
The exact date that the Piscine des Amiraux will throw open its doors to the public has not yet been announced, but it is set to happen before the end of the month.

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