Emma-Joëlle Laflute, a writer, leads a three-part cycle of writing workshops built on the work of George Sand. Each session starts from something of Sand’s own: a sentence, an extract or a short instruction, which participants then carry off in whatever direction they choose. The meetings alternate time spent writing with readings aloud and talk about what has just been written. A single session can be taken instead of the whole cycle.
Region: centre-val-de-loire
Christmas Session : le Big Band du conservatoire
The jazz and musiques actuelles department of the Chartres conservatoire ends its year with the Christmas Session, heir to its older Christmas jam. The Big Band takes the stage beside the workshops of the different classes. The programme is left deliberately loose: standards, new finds and improvisation. The pupils and their teachers play together in the Salle Doussineau, and entry is free on reservation.
George Sand and the Lady and the Unicorn, drawn by ZER
The artist ZER turns George Sand and the Lady and the Unicorn into graphic works, drawn on fabric and on paper. The tapestries were saved with the help of Prosper Mérimée, which gives the show its second thread. It hangs in the Prieuré Saint-Julien at Drevant, whose listed façade stands as a testament to Romanesque art in Berry. Cultural events already run in the priory garden, and the village grew up around seven centuries of monastic presence.
Symposium on the Siegfried collections at Langeais
The Institut de France, to which Jacques Siegfried gave the château of Langeais, devotes two days to the collection he and Thérèse assembled there after buying the place in 1886. Historians, curators and conservators bring the newest research on that ensemble. The register Siegfried drew up with his daughter Agnès still guides them. The château also shows « Fragments d’ailleurs », photographs he brought back from his travels.
L’Heure Exquise: soprano, horn and harp at Lureuil
Hors Saison Musicale brings the trio L’Heure Exquise to the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Lureuil. Chloé Jacob sings soprano, David Harnois plays the horn and Marie Le Guern the harp, forming a chamber ensemble of voice, brass and plucked strings. The concert belongs to Hors Saison Musicale’s programme of live performances in rural churches and other heritage buildings.
Foire aux Rillons au Liège, escale irlandaise
The O’Liège association has dressed its traditional Foire aux Rillons in green and orange for this edition. The champ de foire fills with a brocante and a market of craftspeople and producers. The Irish band The Ghilie’s plays, and the ChoréOceltic dance group performs before opening a session to anyone willing to try. The sit-down meal keeps the fair’s own menu of charcuterie, rillons-frites, cheese and dessert, with a tombola running all day.
Faîtes de la musique : Cœurs à Chœurs et Corps Accords
The two local groups Cœurs à Chœurs and Corps Accords fill the salle des fêtes at Pouligny-Saint-Pierre with a free show in three parts. One sings French chanson, the other dances the traditional repertoire. The pair also open the hall earlier for music and dance workshops. A bar serves the interval, and whoever wants to stay ends the night on a shared picnic with the singers, players and dancers.
Concert Brahms au Château de Villechauvon
A programme dedicated to Johannes Brahms brings Paul Zientara and pianist Arthur Hinnewinkel to the Château de Villechauvon. Patricia Alfred’s exhibition accompanies the concert. The house also welcomes artists in residence through Arts au Château de Villechauvon. Set in the Champagne Berrichonne near Vatan, it maintains a music salon within a six-hectare park.
Vignobles en Scène : le Sacré Banquet aux caves de l’abbaye
Vignobles en Scène brings a banquet to Bourgueil, inside the former cellars of the Royal Abbey. Workshops open the evening and set the five senses to work before anyone sits down. At the table a single ingredient, cheese, is measured against wines picked to show the five terroirs of the Bourgueil vineyard. The abbey rooms, used the rest of the year for shows, exhibitions and its own cinema, become the dining hall.
George Sand et ses hôtes à Nohant
Rythme et Expression ends each year with a staged tribute to an author, after evenings built around Boris Vian, Colette, Charles Aznavour and Marcel Pagnol. This time the subject is George Sand, 150 years after her death. The show returns to the guests who passed through her house at Nohant, the village where she spent most of her life. It sits inside the commemoration the Indre and the Cher devote to the writer of the Berry.