La Bastille

The Bastille was an interesting area in the late 80s/early 90s.

Traditionally, it was the area where furniture makers and artisans associated with the furniture trade had their workshops. Furniture stores still lined the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Workshops of doreurs and vernisseurs au tampon could still be found on the side streets.

The neighborhood also still had a longstanding (but out of date) reputation for being dangerous. In the 1930s, the Balajo and other nightclubs were known for their clientele of thugs, prostitutes and mobsters.

Rent was still inexpensive so a lot of artists had studios there. In 1984, a group called Le Génie de la Bastille started the first annual Open Artists Studios weekend. The funky studios (usually up several flights of rickety stairs) were open to the public and this event drew quite a lot of people.

I was lucky! Thanks to Le Génie de la Bastille, enough people discovered Tumbleweed that I could pay the rent. After that, it was word of mouth!

And I started to get some press.

 

L'Express - October 4, 1990

Madame Figaro - June 1, 1991