textiles
-
City of Blue
The theme of my posts for the moment is days out. Since lock down was released we are trying to make sure we get out somewhere 1 day a week. This year is so strange we’re making it as positive as possible. We are also lucky that this area is very textiley – there was a huge flax industry here in the past but much of the wealth came from Woad – Isatis tinctoria. Yesterday we went to Amiens for the day. Capital of Picardie. In the Middle Ages it was most famous for the blue dyestuff Woad. Traces can still be found from that period and, I’m pleased to…
-
Roubaix – a textile town
As lock down is gradually being relaxed we are allowing ourselves 1 day a week to go out and visit “somewhere”. We take a picnic and are avoiding mixing with people, but this week museums have been allowed to open, so we thought it would be a good time to see some we have wanted to go to for quite some time! So we headed for Roubaix – now a kind of suburb of Lille, this town is known for it’s textiles. In the 18th and 19th C they were big linen and wool producers, now it’s the super high technical fabrics. The first visit was to La Piscine –…