10:59 Oct 18, 2011 

Thanks everyone for your help and time! Sorry this turned out to be an errant question.

10:58 Oct 18, 2011 

I chased up the client. The French wording is wrong and should read "déballage de plain-pied" i.e. the works are uncrated "level with" (basically, in) the exhibition galleries.

09:23 Oct 18, 2011 

Agree with Tony about plain/plein-pied often being misunderstood. However, it is difficult to visualize how the term is bing used here. There are other examples of this on the internet. Some include a "fosse", others a "rampe". The idea is maybe that delivery on the first floor level is made via an acces which is level with the first floor : no lifts, no stairs etc.

08:48 Oct 18, 2011 

...just using that as an example to illustrate the point!

08:39 Oct 18, 2011 

It's a museum.

08:31 Oct 18, 2011 

... that this is on a sloping site, like many French houses, so both the front and back are level with the ground at some point. I see that there may well be only 2 floors in fact?

08:10 Oct 18, 2011 

I had thought they might use an elevated platform (the kind movers use for upper floors). However, I can't imagine crates being loaded/unloaded through the windows. I have asked the client for clarification but nothing so far. "Level access" would be a way round it.

08:05 Oct 18, 2011 

Basically does not mean 'ground level' — that's commonly what it is regarded as, but in fact, the literal meaning is much more like 'level access', and that is in fact usually what it is used to mean; here is a case in point.
I can only imagine that here there is some other means of access to each floor (perhaps a very large goods lift?) which means that nothing has to be carried up steps etc. — things can just be wheeled into place.