Place Colbert
As a young man Louis XIV chief minister Jean Baptiste Colbert spent some time working here in the offices of the Mascrany silk company, whence the name Place Colbert.
The buildings could not be more typically "canut". Flat and ornament-free, the façades have the numerous, charasteristically high windows needed to ensure enough light for choosing the right colours of silk thread.
While tall -close to 20 meters - these buildings have only four storeys: the high ceilings provided the space necessary for the imposing looms invented by Jacquard.
The loom took up almost all the available space in the workshop, leaving the "canut" and his family limited, cupboard-like space for eating and sleeping.