Going to the Circus

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been to France this Summer. We stayed at a camping site at a farm, where the ducks came to our tent every night around dinner time, to see if there were any crumbs left for them.

And that tells exactly the story of this holiday; it was calm, cozy and time just went by without noticing.

Of course there was a bit of excitement; you can’t go some place with 2 teenage boys, and do nothing at all!

So, one of the things they really, really like, is climbing. And in France there are these huge high rope courses and that is where we went. And there was no longer any way I could avoid joining, …….

At first the boys were very patient, and waited for me on every next platform, where they had all the time to make the most awful pictures of me! But that didn’t take long; I was far too slow for them, so they went on, and lucky for me my husband stayed with me. I ended up doing 3 courses including rope sling and zip line.  This was the first and the last time!

For me, the most exciting part of the vacation was a visit to the town of Moulins. It’s really beautiful with a very nice, Medieval center. But that was not the best part.

This was:

As it turned out, there is a Museum for Costumes from the theatre, opera and ballet in Moulins. It is the first museum in the world with this kind of collection, and ever since its opening in 2006 it has had exhibitions about a certain theme. Now the theme was the Circus! In a tour through 13 rooms one could get a very close look at the beautiful costumes used in the circus. From very old, to costumes used in the shows of the Cirque du Soleil.

Because it wasn’t permitted to make pictures, I couldn’t do anything else but to take home a few books.

The one on the bottom is the catalogue of this exhibition. In it are all the costumes in beautiful pictures. Like this one from the Saltimbanco show from the Cirque du Soleil:

A coat completely covered with paillettes, made for the clown Weber Rehde:

The details used in these costumes are incredible. Look at the embroidery, applique and all the paillettes:

I can show so much more; it was just amazing. It was great to see how much work and effort are used to make these wonderful costumes; a few of the techniques were shown in detail and there were some drawings of well known fashion designers (like Jean Paul Gaultier).

Which brings me to the book on top. Christian Lacroix is known for his fashion, but he has also designed for the ballet in Paris, and in this book is described how he actually designs and makes his costumes. From sketches, to actual design drawings, mood boards and collections of fabric, the sewing, embellishing,.. it is all in the book.

The book in the middle is comparable to these two; the subject is the permanent collection of the museum, a lot of history, and of course, lots and lots of pictures.

All I can say, is that if you ever are in the vicinity of Moulins in the Auverne in France are, you really have to go to this place. It is like a candy store (without the calories!), and it gives you so much inspiration.

Groetjes, Dorien