You might think that the panoramic tower at the end of the Sentier des Cimes in Mont-Blanc was built specifically for acrobats… Up therecreated by the Vague de cirque company, suits him like a glove. A show that should breathe new life into the restored site in 2022.
The thirty-minute performance is added to a series of other shows offered in different regions of Quebec by municipalities seeking to enhance their nighttime cultural offerings in resort locations. A way to combine nature and culture.
We are thinking in particular of the show under the big top Shardsfrom 7 Doigts, created last summer in Charlevoix, which will now be installed on the site of the Casino de Mont-Tremblant from July 24, but also, in another register, at Mechanical Bird Flightpresented since last summer at the Massif, or at the light trails Lumina from Moment Factory.
The Sentier des cimes heritage site was completely restored two years ago for a sum of approximately $23 million. This former fish farming hotspot in the Laurentians, founded in 1933, had been abandoned when it closed in 1992, until the MRC de Mont-Blanc took it over in 2008.
PHOTO DANIEL DESMARAIS, PROVIDED BY THE SENTIER DES CIMES
The 700-metre footbridge, which crosses the Laurentian forest, leads to a 40-metre-high panoramic tower.
The German company Erlebnis Akademie carried out the transformation work. They invested 18 million between them. “The site has five buildings that have all been restored, including a restaurant. There are also two pools made of fieldstone, including the main pool, which has also been redone,” says Nicolas Joly, general manager of Sentier des cimes.
But the main work is the Path itself: a 700-metre-long wooden footbridge erected between 6 and 18 metres high, where you walk at the height of the treetops, which leads to a panoramic tower over 40 metres high in the shape of a nonagon (nine sides!). Another 700-metre route, which this time is done in climbing mode, gently goes around the structure to the summit.
The tower, which offers a magnificent view of the region – and particularly of Mont Blanc – has never had any other function than to allow walkers to contemplate nature. The project of Vague de cirque, a company founded by Alain Boudreau – one of the co-founders of Éloize – and Noémie Gervais, who has a one-year contract, with an option for next summer, is therefore a nice addition to the Sentier des cimes.
The Boudreau-Gervais couple, who became known for their big top shows in the early 2010s, took a short break around 2017, before settling in Val-David with their four children. After the pandemic, the two artists presented the show Ephemeral, a circus under the cloudsand then we find them at the design of this new show presented at Mont-Blanc.
“I like the idea of democratizing the circus,” says Noémie Gervais, who recruited the show’s four circus artists. “To bring the circus to unusual places, into nature, and to more remote regions.”
The circus performer did indeed hang up her hoop, but she designed Up there with Alain Boudreau, who is directing.
“The concept is simple,” she summarizes. “We imagined an apartment tower, with neighborhood stories. Of course, we were very inspired by the period we experienced during COVID-19, and even after, when we saw that people were staying at home a lot… The performers of Up there are therefore neighbors on the same landing who will leave their comfort zone.
PHOTO DANIEL DESMARAIS, PROVIDED BY THE SENTIER DES CIMES
Léon Le Nestour studies at the École de cirque de Québec. He is seen in full flight in the aerial performance area circumscribed by the director Alain Boudreau.
Spectators, on the other hand, are invited to see the show from the upper levels of the tower – but not from the highest levels either. Three to four levels are reserved for them. In total, the four levels can accommodate up to 300 people.
The safety net stretched across the middle of the tower for the safety of the performers also allows the acrobats to bounce on it like a trampoline – with less bounce, of course, but still. “That was one of the biggest challenges in designing this show,” Alain Boudreau tells us: “to make the site safe and to properly circumscribe the performance space.”
Up there offers us some beautiful performances by the Spanish Sabina Arizmendi on aerial silks (seen at the Monastère cabaret in Montreal), by the Chilean Abraham Hernandez, one of the best acrobats of trickline to the world (a kind of slackline with even more bounces), from Quebecer Pierrot Heault, who does a number on the flying rope and sings opera arias, and finally from a Swedish student from the Quebec Circus School, Léon Le Nestour, who does acrobatics on the ground (on the rebound net).
In short, a wonderful cultural break in an enchanting setting, what more could you ask for?
Up there is presented at the Sentier des cimes at 7:30 p.m. until 1er September. Rates are $55 per person to enter the site and see the show. There are also family rates.
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