Azou kept a club nobody in her family knew about, and at her death her three grandchildren push its door open on the eve of the funeral. What they find is a cabaret, played by Cie La Lavée in song and spoken récit over an omelette and bread and butter. Mathilde Martinage built it from interviews and collected testimony, so the fiction carries real Breton voices. The Centre culturel François Mitterrand at Plouzané takes it from ten years up.
Tag: storytelling
Il était une fois Bon-Repos, balade contée à l’abbaye
A told walk through the Abbaye de Bon-Repos, run by the Association des Compagnons de l’Abbaye de Bon-Repos. A story, a sound and a making moment carry the house’s own history into the dark. The senses do the work, not a commentary, and families with young children are who it is built for. The walk sits inside Les Minutes Bleues, the festival that opens the Côtes d’Armor’s natural and cultural high places under blue light at dawn and dusk.
Le chant des Bienveillantes at Abbaye de Beauport
Les Minutes Bleues sets its fifth edition at heritage sites across the Côtes-d’Armor, in the blue light of dawn and dusk. Its Paimpol evening belongs to the Abbaye de Beauport, where a community of women once lived on after dark. Their history is told aloud inside the abbey, then carried by song, and listeners are asked to close their eyes and simply hear it. The group is held to sixteen, and the piece is written for ages twelve and up.
Du Val sans Retour au Graal avec Ozégan
Ozégan leads this balade contée out of Tréhorenteuc into the Val sans Retour, the valley at the heart of Brécéliande that Breton legend gives to Morgane la fée. Tales of the Golden Tree, the Fairy Mirror Pond, the Rock of False Lovers and Merlin’s Seat are told along the way, legends of this mysterious forest. The Chapelle du Graal ends the route, a mythical and mystical place whose uniqueness in the world the storyteller explains on the spot. His bag of tricks, tales and music honours the beauty and magic of life, played on unusual instruments, some of them medieval reconstructions.
Veillée marionnettique at the Château de Quintin
Polichinelle, Guignol, Charlemagne and the trois mousquetaires carry the tales and legends gathered at the Château de Quintin. Designing a puppet, real or imaginary, and bringing it to life follows the telling, for ages six and up, with reservation required. A Monument historique at the heart of the Petite Cité de Caractère de Quintin, the château programmes the veillée within the fifth Minutes Bleues. That festival opens high places of the natural and cultural heritage of the Côtes d’Armor in the blue light of dawn or dusk.
Spontailh at the Fête des Babigoù, Paimpol
Spontailh is a bilingual Breton-French musical tale that Awenn Plougoulm brings to the Fête des Babigoù in Paimpol. She sings and tells of the Samain, the moment when the door to the other world stands open, and glosses her own title along the way: in Breton, spontailh means scarecrow. Her songs and stories are drawn from the repertoire of the Monts d’Arrée. Two sittings are programmed at La Sirène, one for babies and one for older children.
A tête reposée: the skull-box workshop at Saint-Fiacre
When the light goes, the Office de Tourisme Falaises d’Armor gathers a small group at Saint-Fiacre around a Breton usage that slipped out of memory: the boites à crânes. A teller explains what those skull boxes held and why parishes wanted them in plain sight. The talk runs on questions and contes between the explanations. Each participant then shapes a small box to carry home, and a torch belongs in the bag.
The Gontardz Armour Trail
Gontardz, the warrior said to have given Les Granges-Gontardes its name, has lost part of his armour. Children follow clues through the streets of the old centre to locate the missing piece. The heritage game is in French and free of charge, with a route intended for young participants aged six to twelve.
Maison du Mouton by Lantern Light
Lanterns illuminate the rooms of the Maison du Mouton during this guided walk in Romans-sur-Isère. The tour combines tales with historical anecdotes as it leads through the interiors of a wealthy medieval residence. Commentary is in French, and advance booking is required. Admission is free for visitors under eighteen.
Le grand bal des animaux
Familiar animals from traditional tales gather for an imaginary ball in Le grand bal des animaux. Each creature has a human face and a story of its own, with some proving less than well behaved. Thierry Bénéteau’s spoken tales weave between fantasy and the contemporary world. Julien Evain accompanies them on accordion in this performance for Montluçon’s Dire, lire et conter festival.