Trip of A
Lifetime?
Vintage Textile Tour of France
By: Dawn Hunt
For a photo gallery of some tour images - click here.
This past September, I had the opportunity to travel to France with 36 other textile and quilt enthusiasts on the Vintage Textile tour hosted by Debbie Roberts. Quel experience!
In the fall of 2004 I received an e-mail list announcing an upcoming vintage textile tour. The planned agenda was tantalising and as I was planning to ‘retire’ from my military career as a Civil Engineer with the Canadian Air Force in the not too distant future I knew I would have the ‘vacation’ time. After I dropped a few none-too-subtle hints, my parents graciously offered to subsidize my trip (a retirement gift) and I was booked.
Over the next several months Debbie kept the group of Americans, Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders apprised of itinerary updates and sent us intriguing links to web sites featuring our French destinations. (See end of article for list of web sites.) By the time we met in Zurich on the morning of September 1st, after having flown through the night from Newark, we were thoroughly prepared for what lay ahead of us on our 12 day trip; or were we?
After a short drive to nearby Wesserling, France, we began our first of many guided tours of textile museums. Le Musée du Textile et des Costumes de Haute-Alsace is housed in a former textile manufactory. It was established in 1762 and on the eve of the French Revolution was one of the most important textile manufactories in France. During our visit we were introduced to printed French textiles known as ‘Indiennes’. The panoramic view of the factory lands, from the roof top of the museum gave us an appreciation for the scale of operation.
In the evening we were treated to a dinner of typical Alsatian fare in neighbouring Mulhouse. After a good night’s sleep, the group was divided into two and we spent our day at Le Musée de l'Impression sur Etoffes (The Museum of Printed Textiles). While half were having a guided tour of the permanent and visiting exhibits, which included a demonstration of wood block printing with vintage/extant wood blocks, the other half were poring over the archived collection of more than 3 million samples. Although the collection was begun in 1833, sample books from the 18th century to the present were available for us to peruse. Many of us were astounded by the richness of the hues, and the quality and the fineness of the printed designs. Perhaps one of the most interesting observations was the presence of what appeared to be a ‘black’ dye in early 19th century samples, since we had understood that black dyes were difficult to achieve. The museum gift shop featured books, silks, cotton squares, handkerchiefs, and other items that were just too tempting for many of us to pass by. Many of us considered our day in Mulhouse at the Museum as the piece de résistance of the entire trip!!
The following day, after traveling by bus with a short stop en route at Lyon, we arrived in Avignon and were greeted by AQSG member and noted Provençal textile authority, Kathryn Berenson. Kathryn’s evening lecture gave us an overview of the historical significance that the region played in the development of the printed textile and quilting industries in Europe. Accompanied by Kathryn, the following day we visited the city of Arles, the subject for many of Van Gogh’s last works, and had a guided tour of Le Museon Arletan. Within the museum, devoted to the Provençal way of life, we saw displays spanning three centuries of traditional Provençal dress. Once again the colours and detail of the motifs in the fabrics of the 18th century dress were remarkable. It was here that we saw our first samples of broderie de Marseille, corded and stuffed whitework, produced by professional needlewomen working in ateliers in Marseilles in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As of the nineteenth century this whitework was also known by Provençal women as Boutis. We then traveled to nearby Marseilles and Le Musée des Arts et Traditions housed in the Château Gombert, a small local museum but with a room overflowing with quilted jupons (skirts), caracos (short jackets), and the all white broderie de Marseille bed clothing and covers. Here too we saw samples of the fenêtre (window) style quilts. These quilts are the Provençal version of pieced quilting and were constructed with a center textile framed on all sides by a simple plain border of a contrasting fabric.
The next day we were on to market day at L’isle sur la Sorgue. The market stalls were packed with spices, meats, soaps, the ever-present lavender, and contemporary Provençal textiles but for many of us the appeal of this picturesque town was the antique textile and quilt dealers. The stores of La Maison Biehn, La Boutique de Francine and Nathalie Legier Antiquities are all situated within easy walking distance of the market. What we saw were samplings of printed French textiles, Provençal quilts and needlework dating as early as the late 1700s period. Amongst the many purchases of the day, several fenêtre quilts and items of broderie de Marseille and Boutis have now found new homes in the South Pacific and North America. Show and tell at the end of the day was spectacular!
There was more in store for us as we then traveled to Tarascon. Here we toured Le Musée Souleiado and once again we were treated to a stunning display of Provençal quilting. This museum is dedicated to the history of the popular hand-decorated fabrics known as Souleiado. Home decoration accessories and bolts of contemporary Souleiado fabric inspired by the 40,000 eighteenth century fruitwood blocks housed at the museum awaited us in the museum gift shop. Our next stop was the factory of Les Olivades. After seeing wood block printing demonstrations in Mulhouse, here we had a guided tour of an operational fabric printing factory using the screen printing method. More time was spent in the factory store and some of us were able to buy yardage of the toile we had seen printed in the factory.
After three full days in the South of France we departed for Paris on the Train á Grand Vitesse (TGV). The train trip was without a hitch but was nevertheless a bit of an adventure, as by this time our suitcases were beginning to bulge at the seams and the worry about weight limitations for our return flight began to take hold. Once in Paris we had free time to take in the City and many of its cultural highlights including, the Eiffel Tower; the Louvre, d'Orsay and Cluny museums; Montmartre; the Champs-Elysees; and, nearby Giverny. Many of us visited the le Rouvray, a quilt store near Notre-Dame cathedral. Boutis is enjoying a resurgence in popularity and it was here that kits and supplies including Boutis needles were purchased. By now some in our group needed to take advantage of the sidewalk vendors selling luggage!
During our time in Paris we travelled as a group to nearby Versailles and then on to Jouy-en-Josas and the site of Oberkampf’s factory. The fabrics on display in the museum exemplified the evolution of the fabrics printed with pastoral scenes, mythological figures and personages of renown, now known generically as ‘Toiles de Jouy’. We were reminded that this style of fabric printing was also carried out elsewhere in France including Nantes and Alsace. As well, we saw samples of the ‘Indiennes’ decorated with fruits and flowers in vibrant colours and the geometrics printed in Oberkampf’s manufactory. A local home furnishing fabric and upholstery store, within walking distance of the museum, was another opportunity for those of us who still had room in our suitcases to buy toile. Our final evening in France was spent together with a delicious dinner in a restaurant off the Champs-Elysees and a cruise on the River Seine.
Throughout the trip we were accompanied by tour director Adoram Schneidleder. Adoram, with a MA in History, and who admitted to us he had no previous specific knowledge of textile or quilting history, enriched our experience as he provided us with the historical context of the life and times of the region and the country during the 17th and 18th centuries and the growth of the textile industry in Europe. Our tour was certainly enhanced by all of Debbie’s efforts to prepare us for what lay in store along our journey but no amount of book study or web-page viewing could replace the excitement and enjoyment of experiencing first hand the textile treasures that awaited us in France. Was this the textile trip of a lifetime? Quite possibly, but I’d like to reserve judgment as Debbie is planning a trip to Great Britain and a return trip to France with new stops along they way…. Now I wonder, if my husband would like to treat me to a trip in honour of a fast approaching significant birthday??
Web-Pages of Interest
Le Musée de l'Impression sur Etoffes http://www.musee-impression.com/gb/default.html
Le Musée Souleiado http://www.souleiado-lemusee.com
The Toile de Jouy Museum http://www.jouy-en-josas.fr/iso_album/dossier_de_presse_en_anglai.pdf