France’s flamenco soul

Decades of flamenco history shine bright in France, thanks to renowned festivals such as Mont-de-Marsan and Nîmes, which have featured artists of the stature of Camarón, Paco de Lucía and Paquera de Jerez, among many others.

The rhythm of palmas por bulerías in a peña in Jerez de la Frontera. The soul-piercing cante in a tablao on a street in Triana. Flamenco casts a boundless, irresistible spell on all those who explore it, and that’s something that cannot be contained by any border. That’s why flamenco has been declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, being much more than a Spanish art form. In this article, we’ll focus on France, a country that has embraced this noble artistic genre for centuries.

Interest in flamenco has existed in France since the 18th century. Famous personalities such as Debussy, Ravel, Mérimée, Gustave Doré, Théophile Gautier and Chateaubriand had a higher regard for this cultural expression than for any other. We must also remember that many Spanish intellectuals settled in France after fleeing their country during the Spanish Civil War. From those years we have, for example, the iconic flamenco anthology published in France by Hispavox in 1954, edited by Ducretet-Thomson and directed by Jerez’s Perico el del Lunar. Ramón Montoya also recorded in France.

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Tags Mont-de-Marsan and Nîmes