“It’s a colossal project, the culmination of a lifetime of passion.” In Rennes, Régis Masclet has not finished turning heads. Nicknamed “Monsieur Manège” in the Breton capital, this fairground arts enthusiast has been delighting young and old alike for several decades with his old merry-go-rounds installed in Place Hoche and in the galleries of the Alma and Grand Quartier shopping centres. Since December, he has also taken up residence in Place Sainte-Anne with his always-full Carrousel du Palais.
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Always looking for new projects to amaze the gallery, this former publicist is also working in the greatest secrecy on the opening of a place dedicated to fairground arts in the Breton capital. “It will look a bit like at the Museum of fairground arts in Paris but it will not be a museum, rather a conservatory which will retrace a hundred years of fairground arts history with rides and a whole host of objects, ”he confides to 20 Minutes, confirming information from the API professional letter.
In a place that “few people know”
Anxious to pass on his passion, Régis Masclet also plans to open a training center in this festive and popular place “for young people who want to learn how to renovate rides”. Apprentices should have something to do. In the sheds of Régis Masclet, an inveterate collector, around twenty old rides are waiting to be refurbished before resuming service. Some should naturally find their place in this new place which should open its doors by 2025.
But where will it be located? The location is currently being kept secret. For a while, Régis Masclet had views on the former lingerie factory Huit which closed its doors in 2017 in the ZI southeast. “But we got overtaken,” he says. The future location, which should be known at the start of the school year, will be more central. “It’s a place that few people know because no one has access to it, specifies Régis Masclet, without letting go of the piece. A place that had to be destroyed and that we are going to save”.
A crowdfunding to acquire an old carousel from 1880
While waiting to finalize the sale, “M. Manège” is still trying to complete its collection. This time he has set his sights on an old carousel dating from the 1880s. he.
After delighting many children in the North and at the Foire du Trône, the carousel stopped running in the 1980s in the heart of Paris, not far from the current Forum des Halles. “Its owner has wanted to sell it to me for a long time and I have finally made up my mind”, underlines Régis Maslet. To help him acquire his new toy, he has just launched a crowdfunding campaign with a target of 130,000 euros to collect.
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