That's what Raymond Isidore (1900-1964) did, anyway. Graveyard sweeper by day, amateur mosaic artist by night, he spent more than 30 years decorating every inch of his house in Chartres, France with fragments of old plates, bottles, and cups. Investing over 29,000 hours of labor and 15 tons of glass and ceramic dragged from the local dump, Isidore eventually produced what is undoubtedly the awesomest, most totally totally awesome place ever: la Maison de Picassiette.
The house, which was declared a historical monument in 1982, shares Isidore's nickname, Picassiette, an oh-so-clever pun meaning both "plate-stealer" and "Picasso of plates."
Raymond "Picassiette" Isidore seated in his "sweeper's throne"Today, the Maison de Picassiette appears to be owned and operated by the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Chartres. For some reason, though, someone decided to leave it in the hands of a group of grumpy old men who inexplicably enforce a no-photography policy. Fortunately, being the type of girl who not only eats suspicious nutella but now rides in cars with strangers, I was not about to let any gentilshommes stop me from fanatically documenting my visit. If the photos are a little out of focus, it's only because I took them all without looking at the screen...
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