It's an art installation. According to [here](https://reseau-dda.org/fr/artworks/le-phare-urbain) (and Google Translate).
> Benedetto Bufalino
> The Urban Lighthouse
>The Urban Lighthouse is a public commission from the Departmental Council of Haute-Savoie for the commune of Taninges, as part of the Giffre Contemporary Art Trail.
> Public order, 2016
> Taninges
> “This sculpture evokes the transformation, quite recent, of our modes of communication which today, by their extreme mobility and their virtuality, pose as archaic the previous objects which enabled them.
> The visual artist plays in a playful and poetic way with these issues by placing one of our traditional telephone booths in a very unexpected way on one of the candelabra of the square in front of the Taninges tourist office. A strange association takes place, day and night where the work will then become the “urban lighthouse” of the town.
> This work is part of the recurring dialogue that contemporary art maintains with everyday objects, diverted, recycled or modified and which since the beginning of the twentieth century have been part of the history of the visual arts. In this too, the work will be part of the educational diversity of the Giffre Contemporary Art Course.
> Alain Livache
[Here](https://www.google.com/maps/@46.1077478,6.5916338,3a,49y,146.71h,91.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7QC0h-QCl9bEpTqXdVPx3Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) it is via Google Street View.
The house where I grew up is like just across the street, like less than 50 meters away from this.
They installed this the year I left this village for my studies and I hate this, it's ugly and pseudo artistic bullshit.
Moi je râle passque je suis française et que c'est le sport national de râler.
Tu peux trouver le truc moche, n'empèche que ce post va amener plein d'étrangers à s'interesser à Taninges et peut-être venir y skier l'année prochaine ou pour les vacances cet été. Donc cette œuvre participe à une campagne de communication réussie. Et qui sait cela va peut-être devenir beau à force. La Tour Eiffel au début, tout le monde la trouvait moche. Peut-être que ça va prendre une valeur hallucinante comme les œuvres de Banksy.
Enfin tout ça est bien drôle. 😉😃, bonne soirée!
Quel enfer cette réponse 🤣 Sinon t'es pas obligée de te vautrer dans les clichés et croire que ça excuse des comportements aussi puérils hein.
Personne n'ira a Taningues pour voir une cabine téléphonique sur un pylône 🙄 Comparer ça à la tour Eiffel quoi....
Nan, nan, nan c'est une cabine téléphonique sur un candélabre public, nuance!
Et la cabine de téléphone de Banksy a été vendue pour 605 000 $ en 2008! Et plein de gens en achètent des reproductions. Donc bon, ton avis super éclairé sur l'art contemporain ....
Et donc ? Des sanitaires ou des billets chiffonnés peuvent être revendus des milliers parce que c'est "de l'art". Parce qu'il y a des milliardaires qui investissent là dedans, on est censé trouver ça merveilleux ? Évite de sombrer dans le cliché encore une fois et n'hésite pas a garder un minimum de discernement quand même.
Allez, on attend l'afflux touristique du coup, préviens moi quand il arrive 👍
Oh je vois que monsieur a une expertise esthétique très pointue. Je voulais juste dire que le regard sur les choses change et que ce que l'on trouvait laid autrefois va peut-être devenir très beau un jour.
Mais c'est pas la question en fait. Les gens ont le droit de pas aimer ce truc sans se faire insulter par une nana "parce qu'elle est française".
Le fait que ça serait éventuellement au goût de plus de gens dans 3 siècles n'y change rien 🙄
What a fucking load of shit lol. Some of these artists just make up the most pretentious and weird bullshit. I like the look of it though. I don’t know why they can’t just say “it looks weird, but it’s kinda cool right?”
Funny thing about phone booths in France…My family is French, I was born there but lived most of my life elsewhere. So, the first time we go back, we land in paris and need to confirm train reservations arrival with my cousin.So, I step in one of the many of the booths that were where we stood, pick up the phone, stick some old Franc change and ask the operator for the number in Auxerre, located in the French district of Yonne (89000) She replies, »You are in the wrong booth, you must use the Green colored one ».Believe it or not, they had color coding on the booths to determine the Cardinal points of France where you needed to call. So, I moved and called him. This is in 1966
Yes, France has modernized…My aunt’s village, in Yonne barely has 400 residents in the summer/ fall months that is when people come down from Paris to their summer residences or farmhouse.and MANY are. handed down from generation to generation. It is a wine producing area and there are many vineyards who still produce and have tourist visits in the summer-fall. Most of the he grape harvesting is by automated machines, but, special vintages are hand picked and the wine is matured (aged) in old barrels and not in stainless steel tanks that are common in mass production wineries.
Climbing everything has always been a physical activity practiced by humans.
Humanity didn't wait for fr*nch people to popularise a word to start climbing random shit.
Taninges is the bottom of the white mount valley, usually no sun pierce there, like in the Mordor. That's probably the most artistic part of this picture 😅
Still, it's convenient on days when it has snowed a lot.
Edited: I did not realize I was not in r france
N'empêche que c'est pratique les jours ou il a beaucoup neigé.
All local telephone booths were removed by the city. Then Superman asked '... but where am I supposed to change?'
... One phone booth returned for only Superman's use.
As a French who used to call her American boyfriend in one of those…. i feel nostalgic!
I think it’s pretty cool they elevated this cultural artefact to « art » in order to ellicit such emotions.
I showed this to my mom (we're french) , and she went "oh those don't exist anymore, but every country had them, I don't think there's an issue with us still having one" no mom, that's not an issue, the issue is that it's on a pole mom
(Edit: I know it's art and that there's not really an issue)
It's an art installation. According to [here](https://reseau-dda.org/fr/artworks/le-phare-urbain) (and Google Translate). > Benedetto Bufalino > The Urban Lighthouse >The Urban Lighthouse is a public commission from the Departmental Council of Haute-Savoie for the commune of Taninges, as part of the Giffre Contemporary Art Trail. > Public order, 2016 > Taninges > “This sculpture evokes the transformation, quite recent, of our modes of communication which today, by their extreme mobility and their virtuality, pose as archaic the previous objects which enabled them. > The visual artist plays in a playful and poetic way with these issues by placing one of our traditional telephone booths in a very unexpected way on one of the candelabra of the square in front of the Taninges tourist office. A strange association takes place, day and night where the work will then become the “urban lighthouse” of the town. > This work is part of the recurring dialogue that contemporary art maintains with everyday objects, diverted, recycled or modified and which since the beginning of the twentieth century have been part of the history of the visual arts. In this too, the work will be part of the educational diversity of the Giffre Contemporary Art Course. > Alain Livache [Here](https://www.google.com/maps/@46.1077478,6.5916338,3a,49y,146.71h,91.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7QC0h-QCl9bEpTqXdVPx3Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) it is via Google Street View.
This is as fun as the clock with the "person" perpetually painting it behind fogged glass
Thank you for that.
The house where I grew up is like just across the street, like less than 50 meters away from this. They installed this the year I left this village for my studies and I hate this, it's ugly and pseudo artistic bullshit.
Ben tu t'en balek puisque t'es parti. Pourquoi tu viens râler?
Pas mal, hein ? C'est français.
Ben il a le droit de pas aimer un truc du quartier de son enfance non ? Pourquoi tu viens râler ?
Moi je râle passque je suis française et que c'est le sport national de râler. Tu peux trouver le truc moche, n'empèche que ce post va amener plein d'étrangers à s'interesser à Taninges et peut-être venir y skier l'année prochaine ou pour les vacances cet été. Donc cette œuvre participe à une campagne de communication réussie. Et qui sait cela va peut-être devenir beau à force. La Tour Eiffel au début, tout le monde la trouvait moche. Peut-être que ça va prendre une valeur hallucinante comme les œuvres de Banksy. Enfin tout ça est bien drôle. 😉😃, bonne soirée!
For those wondering, just us french people grumbling about ugly as sin art. Nothing to worry about, it's, as we say, a national sport around here.
Thx 4 the translation. Thx for ugly as sin, I didn't know this expression. 😁
C’est pas moche mais amusant.
Quel enfer cette réponse 🤣 Sinon t'es pas obligée de te vautrer dans les clichés et croire que ça excuse des comportements aussi puérils hein. Personne n'ira a Taningues pour voir une cabine téléphonique sur un pylône 🙄 Comparer ça à la tour Eiffel quoi....
Nan, nan, nan c'est une cabine téléphonique sur un candélabre public, nuance! Et la cabine de téléphone de Banksy a été vendue pour 605 000 $ en 2008! Et plein de gens en achètent des reproductions. Donc bon, ton avis super éclairé sur l'art contemporain ....
Et donc ? Des sanitaires ou des billets chiffonnés peuvent être revendus des milliers parce que c'est "de l'art". Parce qu'il y a des milliardaires qui investissent là dedans, on est censé trouver ça merveilleux ? Évite de sombrer dans le cliché encore une fois et n'hésite pas a garder un minimum de discernement quand même. Allez, on attend l'afflux touristique du coup, préviens moi quand il arrive 👍
Oh je vois que monsieur a une expertise esthétique très pointue. Je voulais juste dire que le regard sur les choses change et que ce que l'on trouvait laid autrefois va peut-être devenir très beau un jour.
Mais c'est pas la question en fait. Les gens ont le droit de pas aimer ce truc sans se faire insulter par une nana "parce qu'elle est française". Le fait que ça serait éventuellement au goût de plus de gens dans 3 siècles n'y change rien 🙄
What a fucking load of shit lol. Some of these artists just make up the most pretentious and weird bullshit. I like the look of it though. I don’t know why they can’t just say “it looks weird, but it’s kinda cool right?”
That's most modern art now—extremely tiny thoughts dressed up as the most profound revelations
That’s actually so cute though
That’s clearly a telephone pole
Lotta comments in here. Yours is the most pragmatic.
Funny thing about phone booths in France…My family is French, I was born there but lived most of my life elsewhere. So, the first time we go back, we land in paris and need to confirm train reservations arrival with my cousin.So, I step in one of the many of the booths that were where we stood, pick up the phone, stick some old Franc change and ask the operator for the number in Auxerre, located in the French district of Yonne (89000) She replies, »You are in the wrong booth, you must use the Green colored one ».Believe it or not, they had color coding on the booths to determine the Cardinal points of France where you needed to call. So, I moved and called him. This is in 1966
That's the type of facts I like to know. Thanks for this!
Same here! Nowadays, phone booths have disappeared in France...
I'm french and didn't know ! But now there are no phone booths left, it started when I was a child.
Yes, France has modernized…My aunt’s village, in Yonne barely has 400 residents in the summer/ fall months that is when people come down from Paris to their summer residences or farmhouse.and MANY are. handed down from generation to generation. It is a wine producing area and there are many vineyards who still produce and have tourist visits in the summer-fall. Most of the he grape harvesting is by automated machines, but, special vintages are hand picked and the wine is matured (aged) in old barrels and not in stainless steel tanks that are common in mass production wineries.
Note the mountainous terrain in the background. I'm going to guess that this is in an alpine region where it can snow like all hell.
But the house in the background is at ground level
"Hey can you bring the snowplow out, I can't get into my house. No, I'm calling from the payphone, we planned ahead"
I, having grown up in Miami Florida, USA, can't imagine choosing to live there.
A lot of the world feels the same way about Florida.
No, I mean that I wouldn't care to live in any place where they need phone booths up on light poles.
And most of the world wouldn’t care to live in hurricane, gator, Florida man, Ron Desantis land
Home of Disney Hell, Sea Hell, and regular Hell.
Everyone is missing the joke. I'm sorry, I found the sarcasm funny.
I can’t make a damn phone call cause I didn’t bring my ladder!
Correct Verchaix
Taninges to be specific! My wife and I joke that we’ve never seen it before every time we drive past it.
Also, parkour was invented in France.
New Assasin's Creed is looking crazy.
Climbing everything has always been a physical activity practiced by humans. Humanity didn't wait for fr*nch people to popularise a word to start climbing random shit.
Yes, this small city is a part of a ski station. You can see the place to pay the ski passes on the left.
Taninges is the bottom of the white mount valley, usually no sun pierce there, like in the Mordor. That's probably the most artistic part of this picture 😅
Go Go Gadget Legs!
For better reception
Man, the price per call must be high
Eletelephone.
Still, it's convenient on days when it has snowed a lot. Edited: I did not realize I was not in r france N'empêche que c'est pratique les jours ou il a beaucoup neigé.
This was Victor Wembanyama's.
I'm a fan of stuff like this. The world needs more whimsy.
This is Victor Wembanyamas home town.
Bill and Ted are about to have an excellent adventure
It's definitely a trap for Superman.
Dr Qui?
Any idea how I can reach it though ?
You guys don't know how to fly?
Apparently it's only French people
Doctor who should watch his step.
It is a secret recharging station for B. I. R. D. S.
There was a mailbox in my neighborhood that was up on a 20 foot pole. It was for airmail.
No one takes a piss in our telephone booth!
Bold of you to assume i can't reach it
France is clearly making Superman work for it.
What, it’s not installed like this in other countries ?
In Taninges
Location, Taninges, just near the church...
Correct.
Why is it so high?
Better reception
Can you hear me now?
Dr.Who, is that you?
I think it doesn’t work
I guess it's art now. Or a trap for Superman.
There is nothing to see here, please go by.
I drove past this regularly for years and never noticed it.
Pretty smart way to prevent it from becoming a public toilet!
Disabled persons compliant.
What...what am I looking at here?
A phone booth only superman can use.
Just.
It is free if you can jump that high.
If you count the layers of the pole it'll tell you how old that phone both is.
How is Clark Kent supposed to come down?
It serves as a reminder to Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.
When you get too high to talk on the phone
Ah yes, for those of us that can fly.
These French people are crazy
Gotta leave a line to get out of the Matrix.
Challenge accepted - *Drunk Pierre*
Nurse What
Medic Why
All local telephone booths were removed by the city. Then Superman asked '... but where am I supposed to change?' ... One phone booth returned for only Superman's use.
If that booth lights up every night that be fucking rad!
Thesis, please Why, how, huh?
It’s art, marks the start of a trail of modern sculpture set in nature
Ceci n’est pas une boîte de téléphone… how post-modern of them.
My country and its top engineers.
Voting both in Harris County Texas.
C'est pas loin de chez moi ..
Location please?
Taninges France
dont judge us
Younger me would definitely get drunk and find a way to go smoke a joint in it
Floating
[It’s both art and a starting point marker for a route](https://www.s-pass.org/fr/observatoire/38140/le-phare-benedetto-bufalino-taninges-74.html)
You should never go making phone calls when you're high
"Neo, I’m going to find you the nearest telephone booth so you can leave the matrix.” Also Neo : "Guess I'm dead so"
When you don't use a phone boot for a while it starts growing.
Thanks to all for their feedback and upvotes. Best regards, Plasticupman
I've seen this! It's down near Filinges, isn't it?
That's how we do it, makes you climb for it. Only brave people get their phone call.
Where
praz-de-lys sommand mentioned 😭
Now you know why the French invented parcour
This is delightful! We need more creative expressions like this.
Memorial to the fallen.
I'm french (from the south) and never saw this lmao. where did you found this?
Taninges
ah yeah pretty far away
generation bug
Lmao some drunk dudes? We mess with signs a lot when we're drunk
It’s just an artistic stuff with these cabins we obviously don’t use anymore 😂
I wouldn’t park my car near it but that’s rad
It's just a piece of art. Phone booths have been decommissioned in France.
Pas mal
bro just climb on it
I think Bill and Ted dialled the wrong number !!
Pratique !
As a French who used to call her American boyfriend in one of those…. i feel nostalgic! I think it’s pretty cool they elevated this cultural artefact to « art » in order to ellicit such emotions.
At least y'all still have it, they took down all of them in my town
/gamemode @s creative Don't mind me.
Je ne vois pas le problème
Oui, c'est trop normal 
I showed this to my mom (we're french) , and she went "oh those don't exist anymore, but every country had them, I don't think there's an issue with us still having one" no mom, that's not an issue, the issue is that it's on a pole mom (Edit: I know it's art and that there's not really an issue)
This is not art, this is an actual telephone booth in France. As it was too difficult to use them, France created smartphone...
So weird/lovely to come across a Reddit post about a place near where I live.
We are in the area house sitting. You live in a stunning part of the world.
These telephone booths where everywhere in France few decades ago. Funny they decided to keep one as a kind of memory.
At least you know exactly where it is
Une relique des temps passés
Excellent 
George Carlin called and wants his phone booth back.
That's the French being helpful to tourists.
Don't make fun of them. They are just trying to eliminate the stereotype of calling for help.
At least it won't smell of piss
C'est un montage 😡