ROYAL DE LUXE

So, here's the story of Royal de Luxe. They are a French theater/performance group that are based out of Nantes. They tour all over the world and do really cool stuff. L'ile de Machines is one of their creations that they left behind...that's where the giant mechanical elephant lives. (you may recall pictures of him from previous blog posts.) Much of what they do is street puppetry, but on a scale of which few have ever seen!

a couple of weeks ago, the blue tree-men appeared on cours 50 otages. not for sure whether they have anything to do with royal de luxe or not but still pretty neat...especially as on the right with the mist....

then the wolves arrived at the chateau, downtown. there was a pack of about eight i guess, coralled in the moat area.

then, 'la petite geante' arrived....here's the anchor from her boat.

the story goes: once upon a time, there was a magical island where giants lived. some english pirates found the island and kidnapped the little girl and, i think, her parents. they were being transported on the Titanic when it sank and the little girl escaped on a boat. while she was floating about the seas, her uncle, the Diver, undertook a search for his lost family. he found the wreckage of the Titanic and buried his sister and continued looking for his niece - la petite geante. they came together, finally, in Nantes after wandering, separately, all over the city for the whole weekend.

it was an amazing experience seeing them all over the city and hearing everyone talk about the event. there was very little press beforehand and so, the schedule of events and their locations were all very mysterious, which added to the excitement! many of just walked about the city looking for signs/news and then pressed into the huge crowds to follow them.

the petite geante, napping.

waking and walking

giving kids rides.

the diver, striding across the city.

carina and rachel

more shots of the 'scaphandrier' or the diver. at certain points he would release thousands of letters (via cannon shot) into the air - these were supposedly from a mail bag from the Titanic that he found. i was fortunate enough to collect a bunch!

the little girl in her boat on her way to rendez-vous with her uncle.

the reunion

needless to say, this took all day and indeed, there were events all weekend before the two giant puppets took off in a boat on their way to St. Nazaire via the Loire. It was really just too cool.

you can find more info and pics on the internet, now that this event has happened...here's a couple of good links that i found

wonderful footage of the diver, walking...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGW__ZXsQ0w

http://la-geante-et-le-scaphandrier.blogspot.com/

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_de_Luxe

http://www.nantes.fr/culture/nantes-ville-de-cultures/la-veritable-histoire-de-royal-de-luxe.html