Sigy le Châtel - making tops |
|
|
|
|
|
I said au revoir to Paris and drove 4 hours south east to Sigy le Châtel where Philippe has his workshop. It is a little medieval village nested in the beautiful Bourgogne countryside. It even has the ruins of a castle at the top of the hill. On the picture my rental car (put more than 1500 miles on it) is parked in front of Philippe's workshop. He gave me the large house on the left to stay overnight. | |
Philippe is a true artist of wood, with a love for tops. Here he poses with Figaro.
|
|
Philippe has a small workshop connected to a room where there is an exhibit of the tops he has for sale. The variety and originality of his tops is remarkable. Probably because he used to be an engineer, most of his tops have an unusual mechanical twist.
|
|
|
When I offered Philippe to show him some tricks he said he needed to call somebody else who would probably like to see them. From there it snowballed until we also had people from another village coming, including every kid many miles around. Philippe's wife is a great cook and it was a pleasure to eat the locally grown food, including from their own garden. Philippe gave me a book he wrote about his life philosophy: "Tous Artistes". In it he proposes transforming the pursuit of power over others into power over oneself. "La recherche de l'équilibre passe par un révolution sur soi-même." Life without a passion is like a top not turning. Society should be based on art (defined in a very broad sense) made with passion ("vie-toupie"), not for money.
|
A surprise was the small theater he built in the basement of the house where I stayed. There he gives once a week a show to tourists on the history of wood turning. On the picture it is him in a costume. On the right you can see an Egyptian lathe. | |
|