Eiffel for Paris: SautHermès…

Didn’t you know?

Apparently, when Hermès says, “Jump!”…you say, “How high?”

Literally.

My friend Heather and I attended the second day of a 3-day stadium jumping competition being held at the Grand Palais on March 17^th (St. Patrick’s Day). It was amazing! Doors opened at 10am with about a dozen horn players officially welcoming us to the daylong event! Once inside the building (originally constructed in 1900), we wandered around in awe of the architecture and sheer magnitude of the experience we were about to have. The Hermès “touch” was everywhere evident. The dominant color scheme involved orange and brown, naturally! Zones had been created throughout the length of the ‘grand’ building, dedicated to numerous activities: a few eateries, an exercise paddock, a bookshop, a retail space for Hermès products, workbenches for Hermès craftsmen engaged in creating some of the pieces used in saddle construction before our very eyes, a sitting area devoted to watching Muybridge’s photographic images of horses in motion (!!), a ‘play area’ with rocking horses of all sizes, and even a small paddock with ponies for children to ride. The main event(s) were taking place in the center arena, right under the glass/steel dome. We watched 3 different classes of riders, beginning with a group of riders under age 25. Appropriately, a young Irishman took 1^st place! There was an intermission and Heather and I took advantage of the break to grab a bite to eat and wander through the venue. When we took our seats we saw that the jumps had been rearranged and the next class of riders prepared to run through the course. These riders included some of the top riders in the world. It was thrilling to watch their skill and mastery! The third class of the day involved pairs of riders (teams made up of one male rider and one female rider) from the previous group. The team’s score would be a combination of both riders’ times and faults. Every spectator held their breath as each rider went over 1.6 meter jumps. Many rails had fallen by the end, but the winning team was presented with a large sum (225,000 Euros, to split I imagine?!) and embroidered orange blankets for their horses. The event didn’t end there, however. We were all in for a treat because the equestrian performance group, Bartabas, was going to unveil a routine that had debuted only one night before. Set to Ravel’s Bolero, black and white horses (with riders in disguise…either white outfits with orange wigs or skeleton costumes) worked their way from one end of the arena to the other in stunning formations. This is a relatively new equestrian school that is housed in the stables at the Château de Versailles – it’s only been in existence a few years, I think. Ravel’s Bolero is probably my favorite piece of music. The choreography of the performance was so captivating and I thought it perfectly captured the haunting, frenetic feeling of the composition. There was an interesting twist at the end, too. The entire score was played at a very high speed and the horses were made to race from one end of the performance space to the other with flexible (plastic?) skeletons bouncing on their backs. It was surreal and totally amazing to watch! What a truly memorable day!