Royal de Luxe

Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company which specialises in giant puppets. They were founded in 1979 in Aix-en-Provence^[1] by Jean-Luc Courcoult. After some years based in Toulouse, the company moved to Nantes in 1989. The company has performed in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Chile, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Royal de Luxe, Amiens from 2005

Giants spectacular

Title	City	Country	Date	Event	Spectators number^[2]
The Giant who fell from the sky	Le Havre	France	September 1993
	Calais	France	June 1994	Channel Tunnel's opening
	Nîmes	France	July 1994
	Nantes	France	August 1994
	Bayonne	France	September 1994
The Giant who fell from the sky, last voyage	Le Havre	France	October 1994
The Giant who fell from the sky in Barcelona	Barcelona	Spain	July 1997
Rhinoceros	Arles	France	July 1997	Arles International Photography Festival
	Lisbon	Portugal	May 1998 to September 1998	1998 Lisbon World Exposition
Return from Africa	Le Havre	France	June 1998
	Nantes	France	June 1998
	Calais	France	July 1998
	Antwerp	Belgium	August 1998	Zomer van Antwerpen
Giraffes Hunter	Nantes	France	September 2000
	Le Havre	France	October 2000
	Calais	France	October 2000
The Sultan of the Indies visit on his time travelling Elephant	Nantes	France	May 2005	Jules Verne Death Centenary	150,000
	Amiens	France	June 2005	Jules Verne Death Centenary
	London	England	May 2006		1 million
	Antwerp	Belgium	July 2006	Zomer van Antwerpen	650,000
	Calais	France	September 2006
	Le Havre	France	October 2006		300,000
The Giant : visits the pont du Gard	Vers-Pont-du-Gard	France	August 2006
The Hidden Rhinoceros	Santiago	Chile	January 2007	Santiago a Mil International Theater Festival	2 million
The geyser of Reykjavik	Reykjavík	Iceland	May 2007	Reykjavík Arts Festival	50,000^[3]
The fabulous story of the warrior buried alive of Santa Maria	Santa Maria da Feira	Portugal	May 2008	International Theatre Festival of Santa Maria da Feira
The Giantess of the Titanic and the deep-sea diver	Nantes Saint-Nazaire	France	June 2009	Biennial contemporain art opening 'Estuaire' 2009	350,000
The Berlin appointment	Berlin	Germany	October 2009	20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall	1.5 million
The Invitation Chile	Santiago	Chile	January 2010	Celebrations of the Bicentennial of Chile	3 million
The deep-sea diver, his hand, and the Little Girl-Giant	Antwerp	Belgium	August 2010	Zomer van Antwerpen	800,000
The Giant of Guadalajara	Guadalajara	Mexico	November 2010	Bicentennial celebrations of the Mexican War of Independence Mexican Revolution Centenary	3.5 million
The wall fallen from the sky in Guadalajara	Guadalajara	Mexico	November 2010	Fresco painted in the style of Mexican artist Diego Rivera	-
El Xolo	Nantes	France	May 2011		600,000
The wall fallen from the sky in Nantes	Nantes	France	May 2011	Fresco painted in the style of Mexican artist Diego Rivera	-
Sea Odyssey	Liverpool	England	April 2012	Centenary of the sinking of the Titanic	800,000
Planck's wall	Nantes	France	June 2014		500,000
Memories of August 1914	Liverpool	England	July 2014	Liverpool's World War I centenary commemorations	1 million
The Grandmother fallen from the galaxy into a field in Munster	Limerick	Ireland	September 2014	National City of Culture 2014	250,000^[4]
The Incredible and Phenomenal Journey of the Giants to the Streets of Perth	Perth	Australia	February 2015	Perth International Arts Festival Anzac Centenary	1.4 million^[5]
The Giants^[6]	Antwerp	Belgium	June 2015	Zomer van Antwerpen	900,000^[7]
Les Géants - La grande invitation^[8]	Montreal	Canada	May 2017	Montreal's 375th birthday^[9]
The Knight of the Lost Time (Le chevalier du temps perdu)^[10]	Geneva	Switzerland	September–October 2017		850,000^[11]
Big skate in de ice/Fight against the water	Leeuwarden	Netherlands	August 2018	European Capital of Culture 2018	425,000/450,000
Liverpool's Dream	Liverpool	England	October 2018 The End	10 Year Anniversary of Liverpool's European Capital of Culture	Estimated 1.3 Million This theater has been performed 44 times.
Bull Machin de Villeurbanne	Villeurbanne	France	September, 2022	At the invitation of the Theatre Carouge and the city of Geneva	300,000

Technical data

Sources: Portraits des géants on the Nantes website.

Name	Date of Creation	Height	Length	Weight	Shoe size	Number of operators	Notes
The Big Giant	1993	9.50m	-	2.20m	237	32	Structure of 14m high 8.50m width
Le Rhinocéros	1997	2.50m	5.00m	-	-	17
Le Petit Géant noir	1998	5.50	-	1 t	-	18
La Grande Girafe	2000	12.00m	15.30m	25t	-	25	4 km/h normally but can run up to 10 km/h
La Petite Girafe	2000	5m	-	-	-	25
The Sultan's Elephant	2005	12m	21.00m	48t	-	22	is moving at 1.5 km/h
La Petite Géante	2005	5.50m	-	0.8t	166	18 en 2011 22 en 2009	2.5 km/h by foot 4 km/h with scooter
Le Géant en colère (the father of the little giant girl)	2007	-	-	-	-	3^[12]	Presented in Reykjavik only^[13] The head of the great giant
Le Scaphandrier	2009	9.50m	-	2t	237	30	The big giant in a diving suit
El Xolo	2011	2.80m	3.5m	0.20t	-	20	Height at withers: 1.80m Walking speed: 4 km/h Running speed: 6 km/h.
El Campesino	2011	9.50m	-	2.50t	237	32	Mexican for "Le grand géant"
La Grand-Mère	2014	7.50m	-	1.7t	276	25	The first talking giant
Bull Machin	2022	4.40m		0.86t	-

Gallery

•  
  The Sultan's Elephant in London (2006)
•  
  A Royal de Luxe operator manipulates the Sultan's Elephant head.

Other works

• The true history of France
• Roman photo tournage
• The Peplum (with odorama)
• Revolt of the Mannequins.^[14] After Nantes in February 2008 and Antwerp, in July 2008, It was played in Berlin, in November 2008
• They were also said to have made another giant, more lightweight elephant used in Take That Presents: The Circus Live, atop which the four band members performed "The Garden".^{[citation needed]} This elephant had to be made much more lightweight to be transported between venues.

See also

• La Princesse, a giant mechanical spider designed by the same man who designed the Sultan's Elephant but produced by La Machine - a different performing arts company.
• Les Balayeurs du désert, an accompanying band who perform much of the music for productions run by the Royal de Luxe.
• Machines of the Isle of Nantes

References

1. Ash, Lucy (24 December 2012). "Street theatre revives French city" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
2. "The company". Royal de Luxe. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
3. Total Iceland population in 2007 = 307.672
4. "Regular festivals 'must be held to draw thousands' to Limerick".
5. . Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
6. "The Giants, Antwerp, 2015".
7. Torfs, Michael (22 June 2015). "Almost a million to see the Antwerp giants".
8. "Montréal fête son 375e". www.375mtl.com.
9. "Montréal fête son 375e". www.375mtl.com.
10. "La "Saga des géants" débarque le 29 septembre dans les rues de Genève".
11. "850'000 spectateurs pour la saga des Géants".
12. Reduced number of operators due to the particular position of the Giant (only the bust is visible)
13. Giant beheaded at the end of the show: http://lilliputiens.free.fr/viewtopic.php?pid=908, http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/20/beheading_2.gif, the head will be reused in 2008 for The Fabulous Story of the Giant Buried Alive
14. La Révolte des Mannequins (2008)

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal de Luxe.

• Royal de Luxe official site
• (note that as of October, 2008, the site had no new updates since 2006)
• BBC, "How giants genius Jean-Luc Courcoult fell for Liverpool", 25 July 2014
• BBC article about Royal de Luxe, 24 December 2012
• La Révolte des Mannequins ("Revolt of the Mannequins") Extensive photoblog of Royal de Luxe's show in Nantes, France, February 2008
• I, for one, welcome the Giant French Rocket Girl and her Elephant of Royal Luxury! has a collection of links about the performance in Nantes
• The Sultan's Elephant in London
• Extracts from an interview with Jean Luc Courcoult by Jean-Christophe Planche
• The Sultan's Elephant in Le Havre on October 2006. Pictures and videos
• Photos and info, news, links etc. from Royal de Luxe events all over the world.
• Photo Album about Royal de Luxe on Fotopedia
• "Street Theatre and a Giant Elephant". BBC Radio 4. 21 November 2012.