Last week I shared photos from my few days in Amsterdam, and posted photos for you on my photo pages. This week I am working on photos from the Nantes quilt festival, and my brief foray into the Loire River Valley from Nantes in France. I was able to tour some of the Loire Valley Chateaus for a couple days, and it was a treasure hunt of historic tapestries and other embroidery and textile delights. While I work on editing these photos this week, I wanted to share my day at the Sleeping Beauty Castle – Le Chateau d’Usse.
This castle was considered so beautiful and magical that it was the inspiration Charles Perrault took for his tale of Sleeping Beauty. (“La Belle au Bois Dormant”) The image above combines 2 photos from this chateau. The top is a landscape tapestry hanging inside (I was told it was original to the castle) and also below the lovely herd of cream-colored cows that walked out into a green meadow as I left the grounds. Between the tapestry and the pastoral scene, I could imagine how it might have looked in the 17th century. The castle was filled with 16th and 17th century tapestries from Brussels. In fact I saw many of these historic Belgian tapestries on this part of my trip, which were pointed out by the proud group of Belgians in my tour group.
Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was a leading intellectual and author of his time. Perrault could have not imagined that his reputation for future generations would rest on a slim book published in 1697 containing eight adapted stories, titled “Stories from Times Past – Tales of Mother Goose”. He did not publish under his own name but rather under the name of his son Pierre.
He did not invent these tales — even in his day these folktales were well known — but he gave them literary legitimacy. These stories included Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Bluebeard, and others. The version collected and retold in German by the Brothers Grimm 100 years later were from Perrault.
Watch for my travel and quilt photos this week on my photo pages. I have a fantastic chatty interview (Part 2) with Paula Nadelstern that will also be uploaded to our video pages later this week. Enjoy!
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Luana and Paul
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Travel/Quilt Calendar:
May 27 – Dairy Barn, Athens OH – Quilt National – Art & Activism Lecture
June 8-10 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska
