Aubusson was a wonderful stay and a great way to end the tapestry tour. I have several videos about this town including the one below. On the first day there we went to Felletin to see Pinton Manufactory and a few other things. Enjoy the video blog!
Weaving poppies in France
Travel weaving is one of my favorite activities. It does turn out that when you’re on a tour and you have a lot to see, the only time to weave is on the bus. We had a couple days with long bus rides and in that time I managed to finish one small tapestry diary piece.
The French countryside in late May was bursting with flowers. There were huge fields of red poppies along the roads, some with purple flowers mixed in. It is pretty hard to take a good photo from a moving bus, but one can certainly weave a tapestry of them which is exactly what I did. Of course one never quite has the colors one wants in such a situation, but it was a fun weaving anyway.
France Tapestry Tour 2019, Episode 7, Albi
In the middle of the tapestry tour, we drove south to Albi. This is an interesting town on a beautiful river with a massive cathedral. It also is home to the Talouse-Lautrec museum. We took a day trip from Albi to Soreze where we visited the Dom Robert Museum which was definitely a highlight of the trip. The video blog tells you more about it!
France Tapestry Tour, Episode 6: Angers and Lurcat
While in Angers, we also went to the Musée Jean Lurçat. The museum houses his large tapestry cycle, Le Chant du Monde (Song of the World) which was his response to the Apocalypse Tapestry. Though I think anyone having a response to the Apocalypse tapestry is a bit ballsy, seeing these massive tapestries was fantastic.
Below is the 6th episode in my video blog. After that, some more thoughts about the Lurçat tapestries.
France Tapestry Tour, Episode 5: Angers' Apocalypse
The trip as a whole was phenomenal. I got home late last night. One of the highlights for me was seeing the Apocalypse tapestry. I will write a whole post about it soon, but for now, this video blog gives you some idea of our first full day in Angers. We followed the Apocalypse with Lurcat’s Chant du Monde which was quite fitting since he was creating a response to the Apocalypse (which in itself is incredibly ballsy, don’t you think?). I’ll show you that one in the next episode.
France Tapestry Tour, Episode 4: Leaving Paris
We had a fun day as we left Paris. We had a couple stops along the way on our way to Angers. We stopped in Chateaudun but were unable to see the tapestries we went to see. We also stopped on the way into Angers at the studio of Anne Zerna. She is a tapestry weaver who also makes large felt pieces. She is also a printmaker. her studio was delightful.
The video blog has more details!
France Tapestry Tour, Episode 3: Gobelins
The tapestry tour has been such a fantastic experience. The attached video blog is about our visit to the Gobelins while still in Paris. I have a lot of thoughts about this visit, but will wait until I get home and have time to digest it a little more. For now, here is the basic structure of these workshops.
There are three state-supported weaving workshops.
They are the Manufactures Nationales
Gobelin
Beauvais
Savonnerie
Savonnerie makes pile rugs and we did not visit this workshop.
The mission of the Mobelier Nationale which runs these workshops as well as a conservation studio for tapestries, rugs, and furniture and a lace-making studio is first to furnish official buildings in France. So most of the work the tapestry workshops are doing go into a catalog and ministers of France can choose them for their offices or embassys. Occasionally they do commissions as well.