A vivid red Chinese pagoda rises above the corner of Rue de Courcelles in Paris’s 8th arrondissement, its tiered rooftops and ornate latticed windows a bold defiance of the surrounding Haussmann architecture. Built in 1925 for Ching Tsai Loo, a Chinese art dealer and collector, the building was transformed into a pagoda by architect Fernand Bloch to house his renowned Asian art collection. A cyclist blurs past in the foreground — the city moving at full speed, indifferent to this century-old piece of China planted in the heart of Paris.
