Le Roi Soleil

After Versailles, we headed to Bordeaux for the grand finale of the tour. We had tickets to see Le Roi Soleil, a musical version of the life of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Le Roi Soleil has been somewhat of a smash in France since it opened in Paris last year. It's got lots of young, attractive actors performing the parts of kings, tyrants, princesses, peasants, and even the man in the iron mask. Mixed with music, it's a winning combination.

Amanda first got turned on to the music from Le Roi Soleil when she visited in December. At that time, there were music videos from the show that were getting lots of air time on the France version of MTV. That led to purchase of the soundtrack. That let to purchase of tickets to the actual show itself. As it happens, all shows were sold out for six months in advance. The only opening we could find was a showing in Bordeaux, at a point where the show would be out of Paris for a short tour of other cities.

This was actually the reason for the Louis XIV tour. The trips to the Loire and Versailles were just killing time on the way to show. We had tickets for the 7 O'clock showing on Sunday, May 14 at the ice rink in Bordeaux. Crazy as it sounds, we had travelled about as far as you can across France to get to the show - from Strasbourg in the Northeast to Bordeaux in the Southwest.

In French, they don't refer to stage shows as "musicals"....they call them "spectacles". This is fitting. The show was full of big costumes and big wigs and a transvestite brother to the king and people on stilts and acrobats and such. The visual thrill compensated for the fact that none of us are fluent in French. It has to be a good show if you can enjoy it even though you can't follow the dialogue. All in all, it was very cool experience and well worth the trip.

If you want a little taste of the experience, click on this link. With any luck it will connect you to an online video that includes a sampling of scenes from the show. In the show, this was the final song, done with miniature fountains on the stage to evoke the feeling of Versailles.

Also, you can explore the "spectacle" on your own by going to www.leroisoleil.fr.

PS: If you connect to the link above, here is a rough translation of the song.

It was once upon a time...it's like that that a story begins.
We have all in our memories from childhood.
We go out into life, without any choice, really.
But as long as we still dream,
as long as our eyes can still be amazed,
Nothing is lost
As long as we still dream
that no one ever sleeps without dreams evermore, never more.
We forge ahead to face the world of the great,
Without defying giants
to find a place on the first rung.
We fill out our lives
because we forget that life is passing.
But as long as we still dream,
as long as our eyes can still be amazed,
Nothing is lost.....
It was once upon a time....they all start like that.
One makes their own story, life as she comes.
With it's mistakes, its losses, and its laws.
Believing in good fortune, though often far from it.
Though beaten, he is always there in himself.