Presentation
Inside a former factory of braids and laces from the early XXth century, more than 50 braiding machines are brought bak to life, showing the ingenuosity of its core mechanics that braid myriads of colored threads, producing laces, stripes, and a huge variety of braids.
Thread cans of numerous colors are put un motion all around their circuit, like some sort of waltz on a very peculiar music.
Powered by the Dorlay river, one of the last remaining wheel with bucket from this area is still turning, demonstrating the use of a free and renewable energy. It used to power all the machines in the factory, more than a hundred working at the same time, with a mecanism that is more than 150 years old.
This place is also the living conservatory of old techniques very specific to our region, which was at a time the european capital of braids and laces. Factories from the Dorlay valley were part of this renown. Nowadays, our machines still work as they did originally, and are the living heritage from a rich industrial past, using the power from the rivers.
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Demonstrations of this mechanical ingenuosity and explanations about this amazing industrial history await you in the House of Braids and Laces.