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"MAISON PASSION" Exhibition, Beaune, France 17-20 January 2008 The 2nd ediiton of the "Salon Maison Passion" in Beaune, France in January illustrated the strong hold of traditional fabric makers in France and the growing British influence on colours for renovation of country houses in the Burgundian hills and vineyards. The Laronze family have been selling the great names of French table and bedroom fabrics for generations from their shop in Beaune and were the first distributors to show the 2008 spring collection of "Le Jacquard Français." Nicolas Laronze, the youngest of the family involved in the business said: "We are ahead of the Paris home decoration show next week". When asked how Jacquard and other fabric makers such as Beauvillé, José Houel, Nydel, Vent du Sud, Garnier Thiébaut and Yves Deloorme are able to fight off competition from the Far East he said, "It is a combination of innovation and quality". Just across the floor at the exhibition were three familiar British names - Farrow & Ball, Little Greene and Sanderson. Marie-Pierre Lucotte runs "Les Couleurs de Marie" in Beaune and confirmed that the paints were a reflection of the ownership of country houses in Burgundy. "People know and trust these names from their time in Britain and when they come here they want to make sure that their houses have the same care in colour which reflects the history of their homes." The "Maison Passion" focus as a whole was on new developments in heating - especially in energy consumption and carbon emissions. This was reflected also in traditional forms of heating such as wood burning stoves. The Italian Palazzetti have designed 15 different styles in their "Ecofire" range which can run on a single loading of wood granules for up to 35 hours. Charnwood's Cove 1 fire, designed for smaller spaces with an output of 5kW was also on show. The love of history, and care of things from the past was confirmed at the Maison Passion show by the presence of a John Broadwood box piano from the nineteenth century kept in full working order by "Les Ateliers Blaise Pianos", another family affair led by Margaret and Jan de Bruin in Cirey-sur-Blaise. "We just work with private individuals and musicians who need particular care with their instruments" Margaret explained. "Every concert pianist knows exactly what they want in a piano and how it should be tuned for each performance. Our reputation goes on stage with them - if the piano sounds good and is in good technical order then the pianist can play at their best too and the quality of music rises to achieve a performance which will last long in the memory for all of us who hear it. That is our aim." Maison Passion presents new ideas in technology and decoration for homes and gardens every year in January. Contact www.maison-passion.fr Laronze décor, rue Monge, 21200 Beaune Les Couleurs de Marie, rue Maufoux, 21200 Beaune Palazzetti and Charnwood stoves, Cheminées Varet, 71530 Champforgeuil Les Ateliers Blaise Pianos, 52110 Cirey-sur-Blaise
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