Sunday, December 12, 2010

Spectacle de Noël

Continuing on with the Christmas theme, we took the kids to see a Spectacle de Noël (Christmas Spectacular) in Marseille on Wednesday.

It was almost a disaster from the start - we missed our exit off the autoroute, ran into embolism-worthy road works and then couldn't find a car park.

The spectacle was held at an indoor stadium - it was huge, a few thousand attending. Each child received a sling bag full of chocolate bars and a glow-in-the dark wand, which made the 1.5 hours in the car all worthwhile for our lot.

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Booming acoustics and the half hour late arrival made picking up the storyline a little tricky, but here's the gist:

The MC of the evening (a Toulouse Lautrec-looking clown) became possessed by an evil spirit.

No amount of Chinese magicians:

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Irish dancers:

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Pirate rock bands:

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Or ancient Egyptians could exorcise him.

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The grand finale saw Pere Noël, the Snow Queen and all the children in the audience (armed with their wands) vanquish the evil spirit. Phew. After that we all sang another song.

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The Snow Queen and the now unpossessed MC. I didn't catch Pere Noël on film as it was my turn to hold the baby. 

It was all good fun, but my favourite part of the show was this lady.

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She seemed very petite and graceful, but she went hand-over-hand up that 10m of silk quicker than Spiderman. Unbelievable.

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And then she still had enough stamina for shenanigans like this:

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At the end of her routine she adopted this pose:

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And slid all the way down to the bottom of the rope, without smoke trailing from her thighs. I would have needed a skin graft after that, had it been me.

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I suspect this act was also the mister's favourite, probably because of:

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And perhaps a bit of:

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Hello Boys!

We exited the stadium two hours after we arrived, all juiced up on chocolate. Just as well, as it was a 2km walk to the car!

7 comments:

Marg said...

I'm sorry that your night didn't start so well, but I'm so glad you went, as I love your account of the evening. Your commentary on the photos, especially the last few, was brilliant. Thanks for starting my day with a good chuckle.

Lindy in Brisbane said...

LOL. I'm sure she was the favourite of all the men in the audience. Glad your effort was worth it in the end.

Christine said...

Wow, looks like a really cool show!

Susan said...

That WAS spectacular! Guess that pretty lady made it worthwhile, for hubby at least?!? LOL

Belinda Saville said...

Bwahahahahaha Ahem, yes, I could bet that the lady with the ropes was a favourite amongst the men in the audience ;-) Glad everyone had a fun night though...looks like a spectacle!

Lauren said...

Loved your comments about the last few photos. Had a good giggle which isn't a bad way to start a Monday morning.

Phil Lowe said...

ooooh those thighs.. ahem.. looked a great show.

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