All the clocks are stopped at the Villa Noailles. The 15-bedroom concrete house, designed in 1923, was one of France’s first modernist homes, rambling across the slopes above the hill town of Hyères in Provence. Built for the wealthy, arty de Noailles family, it featured the country’s first private indoor pool and squash court, a hair salon, a cubist garden and all manner of up-to-the-minute functional luxuries.

The electric clocks – simple numbers and hands fixed directly to the walls without dials – were designed by Francis Jourdain and regulated by a central system so that guests would be on time for dinner. That might include Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Giacometti, Miró, or the many other artists supported and commissioned by the de Noailles. The clocks ground to a halt when the villa fell into decay post-war.