Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Le Magazine du Cirque (Part 6)


Scan12350, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

9 comments:

tanglefoot said...

I am lost. Is this a current circus? What is it all about? Looks like a wonderful little show. Someone please advise. Confused; Thanks Johnny.

Jack Ryan said...

Wonder too what this is -- photos look new; the show looks antique -- and wonderful.

Jack

Buckles said...

Two issues of this magazine came to me from Europe anonymously, the text appears to be French and carries a wide variety of excellent photos both current and historical.
I got fussed at for not including the credit on one of the pictures, I'm not sure which one.
The French are quite touchy you know.

Frank Ferrante said...

From what I was able to gather from Le cirque Bidon's website, this is a show that travels from village to village in the French countrysides from May through September. They play under an open sky, probably no more than a dozen or so performers, they did have horses, goat and chicken that I saw. They also had a four piece band that included violin, standup bass, guitar and accordion. One photo from the site shows them going down a road with horse drawn wagons and cars zooming by. Supposedly the website has a translation feature that wasn't working. Great little bit of circus history going down the road. ~frank

Don said...

Le Cirque Bidon is part of the "new circus" movement in France. It was founded in 1974 by Francois Bidon and Fidji Rauline. Since then, it has toured continually in France and Italy. Presenting, as you see, a recreation of a small gypsy circus, complete with horse drawn wagons, live music and performing animals.

For more information, go to the circus website:

http://www.cirquebidon.fr/

I recommend that you take a look at the video of the 2007 performance. You can access it from the website by selection "Spectacle" and then "Video".

Don Covington

Roger Smith said...

Reminds me of Emmett Kelly's observation, in his autobiography CLOWN, of his very early days when this was the manner of travel. I paraphrase, but he said something like, "You have never trouped on a circus, until you have trouped on a wagon show like the Mighty Haag."

Jack Ryan said...

Don Covington:

Thanks for the heads up. How great that is! Would love to get the chance to see that.

Anonymous said...

the price of gas & motor vehicle regos wow the way to go
Robert Perry

Raffaele De Ritis said...

Cirque Bidon have been performing in the last 35 years France and Italy travelling UNIQUELY with horse-driven wagons.

It is not a traditional circus family, and was founded by a group street performers in the early 70s (as happened for Soleil or BAC). One of the two founders, Pierrot Bidon, split in the mid-80s to found the amazing Cirque Archaos, one of the greatest achievements in "new circus" in France, UK and Australia.