This weekend is the annual JEP weekend [journées européennes du patrimoine] when all sorts of monuments are open to the public. It is a great opportunity to visit places that are in private hands and normally never open to the public. Many places will either reduce or waiver their entrance fee.
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| Loches' Logis Royal |
Yesterday we went and had a look around Loches' Logis Royal. We know it well, but it has been a while and they have run an exhibition over the summer which we wanted to catch; it closes today. It seems that there's been a "fashion" trend in exhibitions this summer.
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| Maids of Honor costumes on the left. A Catherine de Médicis black dress on the right |
Recently we visited the chateau de Langeais which had an exhibit of costumes tracing the changes in fashion from the 1490's to the end of the 1500's. Not to be outdone, and, in our eyes, rather trumping them, Loches' Logis Royal has been exhibiting stunningly sumptuous costumes used in film and opera productions.
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| Pretty court gentleman, all in a row. Extreme right: a costume worn by the actor who played the Duc de Guise |
Amongst the best we thought were those used in the 1994 film
"La reine Margot" which starred Isabelle Adjani as Marguerite de Valois; known as Margot. The film was adapted from the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas [best known for the Three Musketeers].
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| More "La reine Margot" costumes. Portrait of Charles VII, king in an earlier century lurking at the back |
Margot's mother was Catherine de Médicis -- dowager queen and the continuous power behind the throne of each of her sons when they became kings -- one quickly succeeding another. Margot, a Catholic was ruthlessly married off to Henri, King of Navarre, a Protestant who later came to the French throne as Henri IV. All of the events take place in the shadow of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 when France's wars of religion boiled over in a royally sanctioned & orchestrated assassination, led by the Duc de Guise of the leaders of the Huguenot party [Protestants] who had come to court to attend the wedding held some days previously. The knock-on effect of the assassinations was an indiscriminate slaughter of Huguenots in Paris and beyond.
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| Beautiful Maid of Honor costume made of silk |
The film did very well at the Cannes Film Festival of 1994 and earned a number of Golden Palms, including one for Isabelle Adjani for best actress.
3 comments:
What beautiful outfits. I think about wearing such dresses though in Georgia summers, with high heat and high humidity …..
@ Vagabonde - I suspect they'd go mouldy!
Gorgeous costumes! I think they do these so well and make the productions look remarkably authentic. The 1920s costumes are one of the reasons I enjoy Downton Abbey. :)
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