The French Father of Fairy Tales

Have you ever wondered where the story of Sleeping Beauty came from, or Little Red Riding Hood, or Puss in Boots? These stories we love today all sprang from the fertile imagination of Charles Perrault, an official in the court of King Louis XIV. And while today such fairy tales are thought of as children’s stories, their original audience was none other than the aristocracy of France.

From Lawyer to Writer

Charles Perrault was born in 1628 to a wealthy bourgeois family. He trained as a lawyer but loved to write, and his poems honoring King Louis XIV brought him to the attention of the monarch. He was hired as the secretary to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis’ powerful minister, and became a fixture at the court. But after 20 years of service, Perrault retired and dedicated himself to writing.

Thus in 1697 appeared Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités (Stories or tales of the past, with morals). This was a collection of eight fairy tales, most of which have become classics: Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Hop ‘o My Thumb, Diamonds and Toads, and Ricky of the Tuft. Perrault’s book was so popular that it went through multiple printings in his lifetime, and today the stories are beloved worldwide.

Was Perrault the Real Author?

One question that scholars ask is, how could one man have come up with so many great stories? Did Perrault base them on existing folk tales, or perhaps something else?

Folk tales were probably not the source. Clapbooks were common at the time—inexpensive books aimed at a popular audience. They told simple tales in simple language and often reflected the folk tales of the day. But Perrault’s stories are not found among them.

What seems most likely is that he based his stories on older tales by medieval authors, and sometimes even the ancient Greeks. For example, Little Red Riding Hood bears a striking resemblance to the 14th-century Italian fable The False Grandmother. And history has many Cinderella-type stories, the first known one going all the way back to ancient Egypt and recorded by the Greeks as Rhodopis.

A Talented Pen

What sets Perrault’s tales apart from these earlier ones is his talent as an author. While he may have based his stories on earlier works, his pen brought them brilliantly to life. The court of Louis XIV loved fairy tales, and prized stories that were told with préciosité—refined language and great embellishments. This is where Perrault shined, writing for the most sophisticated audience in Europe. His stories were a hit with Louis’ court and found their way throughout France, and eventually Europe.

Part of the tales’ popularity, especially among the elite, is because they reinforced the morality of the day. The aristocracy was presented as superior to the sometimes-doltish peasants. Women had to be reminded of their place: Sleeping Beauty was punished for her curiosity with a century-long sleep. And in case anyone missed the lesson of “don’t talk to strangers,” in Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, when the wolf eats the little girl, the story ends!

Mother Goose

Perrault is also the father, so to speak, of Mother Goose. His book of fairy tales was subtitled Contes de ma mère l’Oye (Tales of my mother Goose) and the name of Mother Goose caught on. It became popular in Britain after Perrault’s book was translated there, then crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Mother Goose has been associated with children’s stories in the English-speaking world ever since.

So the next time you read Puss in Boots to your kids, or watch Disney’s Sleeping Beauty together, you can tell them that the story first entertained the most glittering court in Europe.

Jean Moulin, One of France’s Greatest Heroes

There is an excellent small museum near where Val and I live in St-Rémy that recounts the life of World War II hero Jean Moulin. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

For those unfamiliar with him, Jean Moulin is the man who unified the French Resistance before being captured by the Nazis. Despite being tortured and beaten, Moulin never revealed any secrets.

Today, his ashes are in the Pantheon in Paris, the final resting place of France’s greatest heroes, and his name is found throughout the country—only de Gaulle and Pasteur have more streets named after them.

The museum recounts Moulin’s life and has a brilliant re-creation of the night he parachuted in the middle into the mountains near St-Rémy–it is like you are there!

Read more about this great Frenchman in Perfectly Provence!

France and the Cultural Iceberg

Imagine watching a video of a woman walking down a city street with a baguette under her arm. She’s wearing a beret and a chic scarf, and as she passes an outdoor café you can hear an Edith Piaf tune playing.

Now imagine another video, this time of a man walking down the street of a rural town. He’s wearing a cowboy hat and boots and he passes a burger joint before climbing into his pickup truck.

Most people would guess that the woman is in France and the man in the United States, because of all the clues that are easy to pick out: their clothing, the food, the music, the truck, and more. 

All these clues form the tip of what is called the “cultural iceberg.” Anthropologist Edward Hall coined the term in 1976 because he saw culture as being similar to an iceberg—some of it clearly visible, some parts visible but in a vague way, and much of it invisible and mysterious.

How does this idea apply to France? Find out at France Today!

A Magical French Sculpture Park

Charente-Maritime is a small département in western France, wedged between Bordeaux to the south and Brittany further north. It makes up part of France’s Atlantic coastline and is best known for places like the fortified seaport of La Rochelle and Île de Ré, a favorite vacation spot for Parisians seeking sun and sea.

Charente-Maritime also hosts Rochefort, where artisans painstakingly recreated Hermione, the frigate that Lafayette sailed to bring aid to the American Revolution. And it was on the nearby island of Aix that Napoleon last touched French soil before his exile in St. Helena.

But not all of Charente-Maritime’s charms are seaside. If you go inland a few miles, you’ll find a little-known treasure: one of the world’s great sculpture parks, Les Lapidiales.

A History of Stone

The region has been a source of stone since Roman times, and near the town of Pont-d’Envaux sits an abandoned quarry that has been worked since the 12th century. It is in a quiet area, in the middle of a forest—not a place you would visit unless you had a reason to.

In 2001 Alain Tenenbaum, a local artist, created that reason. He had the idea of turning this quiet spot into a sculpture park. So he began raising funds and when he had enough he started inviting sculptors.

One of the features of the quarry is that it is full of vertical walls, perfect for carving. Tenenbaum separated the quarry into zones, each with a different theme, then let the sculptors have at it. The walls of the quarry are big—some as high as six meters—so the carvings are very large.

Step by step, year by year, the quarry was transformed. Dozens of sculptors from around the world came and carved, each leaving their mark. And the results are quite extraordinary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHPBfVfXEeQ

But there’s one problem: the quarry has run out of space.

A Galaxy of Art

So Alain Tenenbaum, never one to rest, had a new idea. He would create a sister site, La Galaxie des Pierres Levées (the galaxy of raised stones.)

Near Les Lapidiales, Tenenbaum built his new sculpture park, this time in a large field. The theme is world culture, featuring art from the five continents. Tenenbaum has arranged hundreds of stone pedestals in the form of a spiral, as his idea is to create a showcase of art, expanding ever outward like a galaxy.

Every year, 5-7 sculptors are invited to be artists in residence. They are given a monolith—a block of stone about 2.5 meters high. This they carve over a period of several months, and the resulting sculpture is mounted on one of the pedestals in the galaxy. To date there are over 60 completed sculptures, with the goal of eventually having 2-300.

World Culture

The program began in 2012 and each year artists are invited from a different part of the world, such as the Caribbean and the Baltic Sea—this year from Japan and Korea. They do their sculpting at the entrance to Les Lapidiales, so you can admire their work as it takes shape, and sometimes have a chat.

The goal of the program is not only to create new art for the Galaxy, but also to share the culture of the artists’ home region. So during their residency, they visit local schools to discuss their country and its culture, sometimes accompanied by poetry readings or short theatrical productions.

Today Les Lapidiales and La Galaxie des Pierres Levées attract over 75,000 visitors a year, but they are big enough that they are never crowded. This is certainly a unique spot to consider for visitors to this western corner of France.

 

A Gem on France’s Mediterranean Coast

It’s one of the prettiest towns on France’s Mediterranean coast and one of the country’s sunniest. But while international tourists flock to Nice, Antibes, and St-Tropez, lovely little Sanary-sur-Mer remains relatively undiscovered.

Sanary was founded as a fishing village in the 16th century. Fishermen still ply their trade there, and today the town is a popular retirement destination for the French, with its bustling shops and cafés and one of the best weekly markets in France.

Read all about this pretty coastal town in Perfectly Provence!

All About French Literature

France is a famously literary country. The country’s authors have won more Nobel Prizes in Literature than any other, and the French read more books than anyone else—a whopping 17 per year!

I’ve put together a few articles for those interested in French literature. Want to know about a top crime novelist? Or the bad boy of French literature? Or maybe you are interested in graphic novels, which the French adore.

I’ve also got the story of a forgotten French masterpiece that’s been called “possibly the best-selling novel of all time”!

You can read all about these and more in My French Life!

The Crown Jewels of France: Where Are They Now?

The British crown jewels are known the world over, with their brilliant diamonds and pieces like the crown, the scepter and the orb. They played an essential role in last year’s coronation of King Charles and are one of London’s major tourist attractions. 

Why are the British crown jewels so famous but we rarely hear about the French ones? It’s because the French crown jewels were sold. Yes, sold! It happened over a century ago, after a political crisis. And curiously, some may soon be coming home.

Read the fascinating story of the French crown jewels in France Today!

Living Part-Time in Provence

I was asked recently to write about the part-time life that Val and I are lucky enough to enjoy in Provence. With pleasure, I said, and away I went.

I wrote about what it’s like to learn a new language and how it has changed my life, as well as some of the French mistakes I’ve made (oops, that marijuana thing.) And I wrote about  the grenade that Val once launched into the middle of a dinner conversation with French friends. And then there’s the question I’ve recently had as to whether French people love each other.

You can read all about it at Ohlala!

 

 

The Tarot Garden of Niki de Saint-Phalle

Niki de Saint-Phalle was a French-American artist who was ahead of her time. She was a performance artist before it was a thing, created perfumes with her own branding before others copied her, had a personal style so confident that Gloria Steinem called her “the first free woman I’ve ever seen,” and was a remarkable artist.

Her masterpiece is the Tarot Garden in southern Tuscany, where she created huge, colorful sculptures of the 22 major arcana of the tarot. It was inspired by Gaudi’s fantastical Parc Guell in Barcelona, and having seen both I have to say that Saint-Phalle has surpassed the master.

The Tarot Garden is spread over 14 acres and each sculpture is stunning. They are so intricate that it took Saint-Phalle over two decades to create them all, and one is so big that she lived inside it while she worked!

To learn more about Niki de Saint-Phalle and her art, and to see beautiful photos of the Tarot Garden, check out this article in Frenchly!

My Favorite Winery

Nestled among vineyards near the village of Gigondas sits Notre Dame des Pallières, a family-run winery specializing in the wines of the southern Rhône. Val and I go every year to stock up, and we’ve never been disappointed.

I first discovered their wines over 20 years ago in California. They were so good and so reasonably priced that Val and I sought out the winery when we started living in Provence. We’ve been back ever since, and in the meantime the winemaking has passed from the 4th generation of the Roux family to the 5th!

For anyone interested in delicious wines that are not very expensive, either in France or the US, these are definitely bottles to search out.

Real all about this gem of a winery in Perfectly Provence!