Itchy Feet - Welcome!: April 2012

Date: March 17, 2012

I have been living in Paris for almost 3 years now, and I must have passed the Grand Palais at least a hundred times. The building, together with it's "little brother", the Petit Palais, always fascinated me, but I never had the opportunity to visit inside. Until now.

Grand Palais

Evening view of the Grand Palais

The interior of the Grand Palais, originally built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, is quite different from the outside. While the exterior, with it's classical facade, complete with columns and a horse-drawn chariot, is truly palatial, the inside has a much more modern, industrial look. With it's elaborate Art Nouveau ironwork and huge glass cupola, it could pass for a rather good-looking train station.

Interior of the Grand Palais

Ironwork interior of the Grand Palais

Today the space is dominated by orange,the color of Hermes, the nineteen century harness maker turned luxury brand. While these days they are mostly famous for their high-end fashion items, such as handbags, silk scarfs and ties, the connection to horses and horse riding remains. So much so, that for the past 3 years they have been bringing together the world's top riders to compete in the prestigious "Saut Hermes au Grand Palais Paris".

As soon as we enter, we are surrounded by horses. In front of us, an imposing statue of Pegasus, to the left a playground full of, what else, wooden horses. And of course, there are the horse shaped potted plants.

Pegasus....

....and other horses decorate the Grand Palais

We take our seats on one of the orange tribunes surrounding the jumping course, designed by legendary course designer Frank Rothenberger. Seeing the height of the obstacles my jaw drops. I have never been to such a prestigious jumping competition, and somehow on TV the obstacles look smaller. Sitting here, looking at them up close, I simply can't imagine how any horse can jump over them. It's a physical impossibility!

Turns out that these obstacles are not even the high ones. We are here on Saturday, on the second day of the three-day competition, and the day starts by "Les Talents Hermes, Class 4", an event restricted to riders under 25 years. So the height of the obstacles is "only" 1.45 meters (4.76 feet). The horses and riders don't seem to share my concern, and they clear the obstacles with relative ease and grace. These animals are absolutely magnificent!

Les Talents Hermes

Award ceremony for Les Talents Hermes

The winner is Alex Duffy on "Antello Z". After the award ceremony we grab a quick lunch (not bad!) in one of the sandwich stands, then walk around. At one end of the building, little children ride their ponies. At the other end, in the warm-up area, we can watch the world's best riders warming up their horses. These animals are incredibly beautiful.

The future of equitation

Warming up the champions

Hermes' master saddle-makers are also demonstrating their craft, and for those with deeper pockets, the finished product is available for purchase (I seem to remember the price tag of 4,000 Euros, but honestly I didn't pay much attention, as I wasn't exactly planning to buy one anyway).

Saddlery craftsman from the house of Hermes

The components of a Hermes saddle

A finished Hermes saddle

There is even a photographic studio, where family pictures can be taken by a professional photographer, for free. In the background, the design used on the famous Hermes silk scarfs, sold at the counter nearby.

Photographic studio, in the background design of Hermes silk scarf

Time for the second competition of the day, "Prix GL events CSI 5*, class 5". The name of the competition doesn't mean anything to me, but the fact that the obstacles are even higher does. Some of them are now at 1.5 meters (4.92 feet). There is no age restriction and each rider may enter with up to two horses. There is a little humor injected as well, with the song "I feel good" blazing from the loudspeakers every time a faultless run is finished.

Prix GL

Our favorite is Catapulte, with French rider Michel Robert. It's a horse so different from all others. She (or he?-not sure) seems smaller than the others, and is the only horse with colored patches. She instantly captures our hearts, perhaps because, based on her looks, we consider her an underdog (underhorse?). We are terribly mistaken. As the name suggests, this horse can jump and yes, wins the competition.

Catapulte jumping

Michel Robert and Catapulte celebrating their victory

One more event left today, "Le Saut Hermes CSI 5*, Class 6" and the obstacles are going even higher, to 1.6 meters (5.25 feet). According to the announcer, horse jumping is the only sport where men and women compete against each other, with the same technical difficulty. We have seen this in the previous two events. But in this last event, things are a bit different. Ten of the top male riders are paired with ten of the top female riders by a random draw. The final score for each pair is based on four runs, two by the male and two by the female rider.

Le Saut Hermes

One of the competitors in this event is Athina Onassis de Miranda, granddaughter and sole heiress of the incredibly rich and famous Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis (yes, THAT Onassis, as in Jackie's ex). Athina and her partner Denis Lynch finish second, behind Malin Baryard-Johnsson and Ludger Beerbaum.

Athina Onassis - Le Saut Hermes

It is fun to watch the award ceremonies today. Some of the horses are so ill-behaved! I suppose calm animals don't make good jumpers, only the temperamental ones do, and for some of them it proves impossible to stand still through the ceremony. This makes my daughter very happy. If the best riders of the world are not capable of controlling their horses, it's OK that she can't either.

Some of the horses doing whatever they want during the award ceremony

The competitions are over for today, but there is more entertainment coming. After a group of little pony-riders circles the arena, it is converted for a performance by the Equestrian Arts Academy from the Great Stables at the Chateau Versailles (using Hermes saddles, of course). The show, "The gift of time", is choreographed by Bartabas and is set to Ravel's Bolero. It was created specifically for this event. It is quite bizarre, and, for a while, as is the case with many dressage performances, slightly slow. The ending is absolutely hilarious though, with riderless ponies galloping back and forth, swinging skeletons strapped to their backs. They are so fast and the skeletons are shaking so violently (loosing limbs and skulls along the way), that my camera can't take a decent picture. It doesn't help that my eyes are watery from laughter. Possibly the funniest horse-scene ever.

Appearance by a group of little equestrians

The gift of time

The gift of time - some incredibly fast-moving skeleton riders

What a day! I must admit, this morning I was a bit worried that we will be seeing some nasty falls. But that didn't happen. All day we have only seen one rider fall, quite mildly, when a horse tripped. These riders are amazing! I have only sat on a horse once in my life, and I hung on for my dear life every time the horse moved. My 8-year old, who has been riding regularly for 3 years now, has fallen countless times. Today, to see the incredible force with which the riders are propelled forward when the horse jumps, and seeing how relaxed and comfortable they are, is just absolutely mind-boggling to me.

I was also worried about being bored. Watching horse jumping all day? Not my idea of a perfect day. But I was willing to sacrifice myself for the sake of my daughter, who is a horse fanatic. My worries were unfounded however. What a fun and exciting day. Definitely to be repeated next year!

Itchy Feet - Welcome!

Coming soon

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Saut Hermes at the Grand Palais Paris