Alençon: Point d'Alençon Lace and the Birthplace of Saint Thérèse
Normandy, France
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Point d'Alençon Needle
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Alençon: Point d'Alençon Lace and the Birthplace of Saint Thérèse
200 + 100 XP
Alençon's needle lace was set up under Colbert, who granted Marthe La Perrière a royal manufactory privilege in 1665 to break the trade in Venetian point; after the London exhibition of 1851 it was called the lace of queens and the queen of laces. The Revolution stopped it and the sisters of Providence started it again, machine lace all but killed it at the start of the 20th century, and since 1976 the state's Atelier national du point d'Alençon has kept the technique going in the old Jesuit college, alongside the town's museum of fine arts and lace. Thérèse Martin, later Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was born in the family house here on 2 January 1873 and baptised on 4 January in Notre-Dame, begun in 1356 by Charles III d'Alençon.
Required Activities
1
of 4
In the lace rooms of the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, get close enough to a piece of point d'Alençon to pick out the réseau of looped mesh from the dense remplis and the ornamental modes between them, and find a border where a white horsehair has been worked into the picoted edge
2
of 4
In the Martin family house, find the room Zélie ran her lace workshop from — it employed up to twenty women — and work out how a lace business paid for the household Thérèse grew up in
3
of 4
In Notre-Dame, find the gown Thérèse was baptised in on 4 January 1873, on show in the church, and then the modern window that shows the baptism itself
4
of 4
Stand in front of Jean Lemoine's triple porch and work out where the flamboyant 15th-century nave stops and the 18th-century rebuild of the choir, transepts and tower begins after the fire
In the lace rooms of the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, get close enough to a piece of point d'Alençon to pick out the réseau of looped mesh from the dense remplis and the ornamental modes between them, and find a border where a white horsehair has been worked into the picoted edge
In the Martin family house, find the room Zélie ran her lace workshop from — it employed up to twenty women — and work out how a lace business paid for the household Thérèse grew up in
In Notre-Dame, find the gown Thérèse was baptised in on 4 January 1873, on show in the church, and then the modern window that shows the baptism itself
Stand in front of Jean Lemoine's triple porch and work out where the flamboyant 15th-century nave stops and the 18th-century rebuild of the choir, transepts and tower begins after the fire
Before you go
The Atelier national du point d'Alençon is a working state workshop, not a museum: it is not open to walk into, and seeing the lacemakers at work means asking the tourist office about the occasional guided visits. The Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle is ticketed and closed one day a week, and the Martin birthplace is a pilgrimage site with its own hours.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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