Circus!

It is hard to get back into the swing of things, but we must carry on.

And part of carrying on is talking about the wonderful circus we saw while in Lille.

This all happened rather by accident. We got to Lille about mid-day, and our room wasn't ready. We had anticipated this, and knew we were going to wander about town just exploring a little. I have some other posts describing some of the things we did.

There is a famous citadel in Lille designed by Vauban that Doreen had wanted to see. It is still being used by the French military (after 350 years!) so we knew that there may be a problem trying to get in. (Long story there. You need to apply to enter, have a copy of your passport, etc, etc.) So we wandered over to see what it looked like from the outside. 

But when we got there, we saw a bunch of tents, semi-trailers, and cars parked in the Champ des Mars. We got closer and saw that it was a circus! A little local circus called the Cirque Arlette Gruss. The theme of this show was "The Revolution in Red and White"

This was about 1:30, and the show started at 2:00. We hemmed and hawed a little bit, but then decided to go. We asked for the "best seats in the house" and were certainly rewarded with them! We had front row seats exactly opposite where the performers came out onto the ring.

When we were in New York last year, we saw the lasted revival of Pippin! It is set in a medieval circus. Well, this was that! They had a good looking Ringmaster (above) who tried to trick us all into believing that the clown didn't show up. So they grabbed a person out of the crowd and made him put on make-up:

 and he was the clown. He looked disconcertingly like my friend John Wilson.

After this introduction, with some loud Euro-Pop music provided by a live band (excellent!) the acts started.

The first was a bunch of Asian men doing rope tricks. They dropped the ropes a couple of times, but overall it was a great show.

After the rope tricks, we had juggler come on. He dropped a couple of balls, but he was a lot of fun to watch. I really like jugglers, and wish I could juggle more than three balls for more than thirty seconds.

The next act was by far our favorite. Well, my favorite, at least.

We were wondering what sort of animal acts they would have in a small circus like this. So when the three round platforms came into the ring, we were frantic with anticipation.

And on walked three cows! Beautiful cows, but cows none the less. There was a bridge built above the platforms, and while the cows were on the platform, three goats walked over the bridge!

You couldn't ask for anything more than that.

 You couldn't ask for anything more than that!

But of course there was more:

The cows and goats walked off, and then three big (huge!) woolly pigs came on stage! They ate some treats, did a little dance, and then were joined by a flock of geese.

Those acts alone were worth the price of admission.

I didn't mention that in addition to the ring master and the clown, there was also a manager type guy. I guess I would call him a clown, too. He did magic tricks and and had a rubber chicken. Everything is better with a rubber chicken.

Whenever there was a change on the ring (this was a one-ring circus) these guys would come out and entertain.

They had a number of strength and agility acts - one couple that had some the amazing ability to grab a pole with both hands, and then rotate their bodies so they were parallel to the floor. 

The next animal act was a woman with horses

 Very nice. She ended up with a little pony that could walk on its hind legs as long as she asked it to do so.

More strength and agility acts followed.

and it couldn't be a circus without elephants. But I have to say  that because we were so close the elephants looked at us, right in the eye. They did not look happy. As a matter of fact, they looked quite sad. Projection, personification, and anthropomorphism, I know. But it was still sad.

The Trapeze artists worked with a net. Because of our spot on the floor, it was sort of hard to see, and at least a couple of times I got chalk in my eyes by looking up. But they looped and swung, jumped and passed each other. It was fun to watch.

All the tigers were quite chunky. But I suppose that if I was working with tigers, I would want them to be well fed, too.

Below is the clown who looks like John Wilson.

One of the creepiest acts was a contortionist. You can have that stuff.

The crowd had plenty of young kids (the one next to us fell asleep, despite the noise)

This was two and a half hours that went by too fast.

Catch them if you can.