Why There's An Emerald Buried Near The Eiffel Tower

Laurent Derobert is an existential mathematician living in Paris’s Montmartre. His fascinating projects involve exploring the models and mazes of passion, measuring the gap between our dreams and realities, and even burying an emerald near the Eiffel Tower as part of a ritual to capture shadows.

Capturing shadows

Shadows are elusive dark creatures that mostly come to life in the dead of night, flickering their fleeting shapes beneath the streetlamp’s glare. But Laurent Derobert, with his trademark artistic brilliance and whose poetic projects always shake the tendrils of your soul, set himself the challenge of capturing its elusive essence like smoke beneath a glass.

His unique art of existential mathematics is always slightly obscure, lurking in the shadows of expectation. It involves mathematical operations being performed on poetic concepts, which, purely from a visual perspective, creates a curious cocktail of combinations.

The project is based on the idea is that a splinter of time, so short it’s like an imperceptible birthmark on the memory of time, will be saved forever, and the exact moment that has been preserved within the stone is 14:11, February 16, 2015 (Paris).

The calculations

The meticulous calculations were made by Denis Savoie (astronomer of the Observatoire de Paris) and then sketched by Pablo Popall. As far as the physical traces on the pavement are concerned, the rivet that was used to seal the shadow along with a small emerald is an original rivet that actually lined the Eiffel Tower.

A short history of the shadow tells us that art, mathematics, and shadows have been entwined from the start. As legend has it, a departing lover was caught in candlelight and his shadow was cast on the wall. Its outline was traced by Butades, which is then said to be the origin of drawing. As far as math is concerned, trigonometric functions developed from the study of the lengths of shadows cast by objects of various heights.

Other projects

This isn’t the first time that Laurent Derobert has been involved with poetic forms of contemporary art at Palais de Tokyo. In 2015, the exhibition “Tiana’s Conjecture” saw him write equations using the tears of women who came to confess their deepest heartbreaks.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.