Tour de France 2017: “The grand finish of the Criterium du Velay”
As part of the 2017 Tour de France stage day in Le Puy-en-Velay, the municipality entrusted the Company with organising all the cultural events offered on 17 July throughout the town (programming, reception and logistics for the invited artists)
As part of this, L’Alauda also created a roaming and static show involving some sixty actors, with an overall staging as its common thread that propelled the spectators back to the 1950s, for the arrival day of an imaginary cycling race in Le Puy-en-Velay: “Le grand critérium du Velay”.
Various actors, representing the inhabitants of a nearby village, boarded a vintage bus (the bus used in the film “Les Choristes”) to attend this great popular occasion. Followed in parade by old vehicles (like a Tour caravan of the Velay), the bus made a circuit of the town centre and suffered several “breakdowns” at strategic spots: there, the whole village got off to put on a colourful little scene, everyone adding their own comment while fearing they would miss the grand finish planned in front of the town hall…
At the end of the route, the riders arrived with great pomp, with speeches (humorous, of course) by emblematic characters of the era. Thus the deputy, the president of the Criterium and so on, played by professional actors, staged the prize-giving, before finishing with a performance by an all-female swing group, for a big popular dance in the fifties style!