Madame and Monsieur Arpel live in an uber modern single-family house outside of Paris proper, with their son Gérard. Built out of modern material such as concrete, steel and glass, the house exhibits a pure, formal and functional design. The house, particularly the garden, is equipped with a variety of innovative technical gadgets, as well as different footpaths and floorings. A fountain stands at the core of the garden and harbors fish-shaped spouts that automatically start spewing water as a welcome to arriving visitors.
It‘s interesting to point out that those gadgets sometimes don‘t work properly, raising the question of whether technology really improves one‘s standard of living.
Monsieur Hulot lives in an older part of Paris. His apartment is located in an attic and is only accessible through several staircases. Monsieur Hulot's neighbourhood is very friendly - he stops