Music to MY EARS

Keith Mundy visits the merry accordion town of Tulle in Nouvelle-Aquitaine during its annual music festival

- Keith Mundy

Tulle? That’s a kind of cloth, isn’t it, a sort of netting? Correct, a frou-frou material beloved of brides for bulking up their wedding gowns and of ballerinas for making their tutus stick out.

Tulle, an old town in the Corrèze département nestled in the western slopes of the Massif Central, is where the material was invented, and where it is still made today – just about.

In a little shop facing the 14th-century cathedral, its spire rising 75m high, three ladies of a certain age are sewing poinct de Tulle – Tulle needlepoint – under a teacher’s guidance. Using square frames, they sew designs into a canvas grid, referring to a pattern on paper. This is the real tulle, handmade with finesse and dedication, only sewn as a hobby now in its place of origin – well known for its lace and silk production during the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the 19th century, industrial tulle was invented in England and churned out in Victorian textile mills, and that mass production of an inferior material had a knock-on effect on the original craft industry in this town.

However, it is not the only thing it is famous for.

Accordion central

In open spaces on both sides of the cathedral in Tulle, in squares, cafés and bars, and alongside the narrow River Corrèze that flows through the town, each year a music festival explodes into life, celebrating that richly iconic instrument of French popular music – the accordion.