A stitch in time: Tolkien tapestries worth travelling for

Tapestries tell stories and if they’re fantastical other-worldly stories then all the better, which makes the decision by the museum in Aubusson in France to create a series of wall hangings based on JRR Tolkien’s illustrations such a clever one.

It's a hugely ambitious project that began in 2013 when negotiations started with the Tolkien family, with work on the first tapestry beginning in Autumn 2017. That piece, the vivid and dreamy Bilbo Comes to the Huts of the Raft Elves (from The Hobbit), was unveiled in April and when the project is complete in 2021 there will be 13 more Tolkien-inspired tapestries on the lofty walls of the town's specialist museum devoted to tapestry, the Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie.

Opened just two years ago, the museum is in a converted former college in the centre of the atmospheric French town – its grim brutalist architectural style softened by a screen of colourful stripes on the outside. On the ground and first floor, there are vast exhibition spaces, the upper floor features temporary shows of contemporary tapestries, while the ground floor displays the town’s vast collection of wall hangings dating from the 15th century.

Quite how “Aubusson” has become an interchangeable noun for “tapestry” is clear in these rooms that are designed to look like theatre sets, giving the wall hangings space and context – whether it’s a unicorn-festooned piece commissioned by a French king to decorate a medieval castle dining room or a spare 20th-century wall hanging designed by Braque, Picasso or Man Ray. But alongside these expected galleries are studios for young tapestry artists and a lecture hall for the education programme.

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At the top of the building there is a restoration department where on the day I visited, five expert restorers were sitting in a row patiently repairing with needles and thread a ballroom-sized 19th-century carpet from a state building in Paris.

Then there is the room with the eight-metre long horizontal loom – large enough to create the Tolkien wall hangings – where head weaver Rene Duche and his team work. Delphine Mangeret was tasked with creating the templates for the mural tapestries – scaling up Tolkien's finely drawn illustrations from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the charming pictures he drew for his children at Christmas. The originals are housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The curious and most challenging feature for weavers working on horizontal looms is that they work on the reverse side of the wall hanging, they don't see the front until they are completely finished and the work is cut from the loom and unrolled. It was this sense of mystery that made the unveiling to the public – and to those who had spent the best part of a year weaving Bilbo Comes to the Huts of the Raft-Elves all the more exciting.

Unesco status

In 2009, the craft of making Aubusson tapestries was awarded a place on Unesco’s register of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the town has embraced the status. The tourist office is in one of the three-storey granite townhouses that line the winding streets and it opens directly into a fully restored 16th-century weaver’s house.

The workshop and loom is on the top floor to capture as much daylight as possible and, up there, surrounded by colourful hanks of wool and hundreds of bobbins, there’s always a weaver-in-residence working away on the ancient loom on their own commissions, willing to break off and chat about the work. A smaller loom in the corner allows visitors to give it a try. In the Atelier-Musée des Cartons de Tapisserie, Chantal Chirac created a museum out of her vast personal collection of cartoons – the drawings and paintings made by artists for generations of weavers to use as templates.

The collection takes up three rooms of the beautifully restored – by Chirac and her architect husband – 17th-century house at rue de Abreuvoir, beside the town’s medieval-era stone bridge. Chirac also restores cartoons in her open-to-the-public studio in the museum – it looks a painstaking business – and breaking off from her own work, she’s on hand to talk visitors through the collection. Some she rescued decades ago from small weaving factories in the area closing down while other more recent acquisitions are from Paris auction houses where cartoons, particularly 18th and 19th-century painted-on-paper ones, are now sought after by French interior designers to frame and use as decoration.

Limousin region

Aubusson with its population of about 5,000 is in the midlands of France, in the Creuse department of the Limousin region (so beef is always on the menu) and there’s a sleepy off-the-beaten-track feel about.

Its green landscape hints at year-round plentiful rainfall and the town itself is built on the banks of the fast-moving river Creuse. Its nearest airport is more than an hour away in Limoges and it is not fed directly by a motorway – all of which tends to cut down on tourist numbers. (There is no direct flight to Limoges from Ireland.) Visitors tend to pass through and stay for a day or two as they tour nearby grands châteaux and gardens or while on the way to or from the more popular Dordogne region.

But for tapestry lovers, decorative arts buffs or anyone who appreciates that intriguing space between art and craft, Aubusson is an inspiring destination. Or, until 2021 when that final giant tapestry in this ambitious project is hung on the walls, if you’re a Tolkien fan. Check the museum’s website for the date of the unrolling of the next tapestry in the Tolkien series

[ cite-tapisserie.fr ]

VISITING AUBUSSON

Where to eat

La Riziere, 59 Grande Rue

Aubusson’s big secret – an Asian fusion restaurant with the freshest dishes (mostly Vietnamese) cooked to order by chef Diana – great service, basic room, and prices start at €8 for mains. No booking so pop along and take your chances.

Hôtel Restaurant Le France, 6 rue des Déportés

Traditional French food in the dining room of this long-established hotel - with cheese, fondue and beef aplenty on the menu – in a pleasantly old-fashioned dining room. Four-course dinner menus about €35. In the summer, food is served on the terrace to the rear. contact@aubussonlefrance.com

Les Maisons du Pont, 6 rue Alfred Assolant, 23200 Aubusson

Set over two floors in the riverside building, a relaxed bistro with prices starting at about €12 for mains. In sunny weather, bag a table on the terrace overlooking the fast-flowing the river Creuse with a lovely view of the old stone bridge. lesmaisonsdupont.com

Where to stay

Le Jardin de Nicole, 30A rue Jean Jaurès

Charmingly decorated with antiques and simple finishes in a townhouse converted into a B&B, with a larger unit for rent. Double room €85 a night, house for six people €200 a night. lejardindenicole.com

Les Maisons du Pont, 6 rue Alfred Assolant

Two 16th- and 17th-century houses converted into a gorgeous atmospheric aparthotel – with 13 very smart suites with kitchenettes designed by the hotel's interior designer owner. Small private spa. Prices start at about €80 per room. lesmaisonsdupont.com

Getting there

Nearest airport Limoges, serviced by Ryanair from London, also Flybe and British Airways. There is a bus from Limoges to Aubusson but it is not very regular so a hired car is probably the best bet.