Maison des Canuts

Monday, January 04, 2016

Hello!

We had such a big lunch yesterday at Croix-Rousse at the Brasserie des Ecoles, that neither one of us felt like eating dinner … so, the pasta remains in the fridge for another evening! Soon …  Instead, we watched a Lord Peter Wimsey movie, Gaudy Night on YouTube, and went to bed early.  (How entire movies end up on YouTube is beyond both of our comprehension, but it’s neat that we can watch some of our “old friends” and not have to physically bring the DVD’s along with us!  So glad Robert found it on the computer!)

Up this morning about 7 to a day that was drying out after yesterday’s all day rain.  Robert went to Chez Jules for croissant and pain au chocolate, and we officially opened our second jar of framboise comfiture (raspberry jam) which was truly made for French breads and pastries.  In fact, it was such a lovely morning, the sun came out and the Saone River across the street just sparkled in the sunshine.  

Today we planned to go back to Croix-Rousse and visit the Maison des Canuts – the house of the silk workers (canuts).  We took the C3 bus to City Hall and found the C13, which took us up the hill to the top.  The Maison was just a couple of blocks from where we had lunch yesterday, and we got there about 20 minutes before their 11 a.m. tour.  (What was interesting about the tour was that only half of the tour was given bi-lingually – English and French, so we only had to pay half of the normal price, and were given green dots to wear on our jackets.  Very odd, but what the heck!)

The Maison had one main room that was their reception area as well as their shop, where various kinds of silk and woven items were for sale. 

A weighing machine for silk, which tends to hold water

No wonder they needed high ceilings

There were other rooms that had looms and various pieces of equipment used in silk making, as well as explanation cards in English and German.  

The tour started on time at 11 a.m. and began across the street from the reception area.  There, two huge, old (mid-1800’s) looms were set up, and we could see immediately the need for the buildings being built with high ceilings, as well as big windows to provide light. 

Loom on which our guide was working

Talk about complicated ...

I’ve never really seen any weaving being done, but this demonstration, of how to make silk brocade, was incredible! 

First, when you are working on brocade, (or any other silk product) it all starts with a paper punch card system, which is mounted on top of the loom.  This system helps to determine what happens to the fabric as it is woven line by line.  

Apparently in the mid-1800’s, when Lyon was the silk capital of the world, thousands of these looms were in operation 14-18 hours a day, six days a week.  The silk weavers had to stand for that entire period, because they used their right leg to push down a pedal that controlled the loom.  No wonder that they went on strike in the 1830’s for better working conditions and more pay.  Wow!  What a process! 

Guide holding brocade pattern

Explaining how to use the shuttle for basic thread

All she could see was the back of the pattern

Watching the guide add two or three lines to the work in progress was amazing.  She told us that first of all, it was necessary for the weavers to actually memorize the complete pattern, so that they “knew” what colors of thread were to be added when, because from the weaver’s perspective, they can only really see the back side.  (She actually had a small hand mirror that she used occasionally underneath the fabric, as she went along to see if the pattern was correct.)  

In the case of the brocade she was working on, it was a white background with 14 different colors of green, rose and yellow forming a beautiful flower pattern.  (Katy and Hilary: this was absolutely amazing; I wished you were there with us to see it!)

Paper punch of the pattern, which shifts for each line

Another loom with pattern on left

After the demonstration, we returned to the Maison where our guide talked about the history of the silk industry.  How it started in China (and death to anybody found sneaking silk worms out of the country!) and how silk eventually made its way to Byzantium (Istanbul) and from there to Spain and Italy, and finally France.   

It was in France, actually, that Jacquard developed a mechanical loom in 1801 that helped to revolutionize the industry.  In the mid-1800’s there was a blight among silk worms in France (Pebrine), that almost put an end to the whole industry.  However, the French government asked Louis Pasteur to look into it, and he came up with a way of detecting and preventing it; that man certainly did get around!  We were really fascinated by the silk worm cocoons – perfect small spheres made up of essentially one single strand that went on for feet and feet.

Finally, in the 1830’s, the French silk workers felt that they had been abused enough, and started first a slow down, and then a strike for better working conditions.  The French government retaliated, and the national militia fired into a crowd of unarmed workers, killing over 600 people.  The workers turned around and went back home, picking up their own weapons, and forming barricades.  The worm had turned (sorry…) Their push for better conditions was eventually effective, and served to start one of the very first labor movements in the world.  Very, very interesting.

By the time we finished with the tour, it was definitely past the lunching our, and as we were so close to Brasserie des Ecoles (from yesterday) we decided we would make a return appearance.  We even had our same waiter, who recognized us and put us back at “our” table!

Cute guy at lunch!

R's fish with rice and shallots

My entrecote with frites and salad

This time, R decided to order the fish of the day with mussels in a gratinee sauce with rice and sautéed shallots.  I had an entrecote with wonderful frites and a salad.  For dessert, R chose their crème brulee, (which tasted exactly like the one he makes at home!) and I had a Dame Blanche (White Lady) – which was not alcoholic, but rather two scoops of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and wonderful whipped cream on top.  Wow!

No dinner for us ...

A little creme brulee!

Back, then, on the C13 bus and down the hill to City Hall once again.  This time, we caught our favorite C3 and took it across the Rhone to Part Dieu’s big commercial center, to pick up a few items at Carrefour.  Finally, back to the flat about 4-ish after a really lovely day!  Don’t actually think that we will make dinner again tonight, so tomorrow we’re definitely going to have to have a LIGHT lunch so we can get the refrigerator cleaned out.  Also, we have to clean the apartment and get ready to head back to Paris on Wednesday!

Lots of love,

m

xxx