Calais (AFP)

"It is giant!", "It looks like Godzilla!": Curious, amused or dazed, thousands of people attended Friday the awakening of the Calais dragon, monster of mechanical steel designed by the artistic company "The Machine".

It was in the morning that the Calaisians discovered this gigantic creature 72 tons and 10 meters high, still asleep on the waterfront, facing the ballet of ferries to England.

When he opens his eyelids, the monster "come from another world" reveals red eyes notched with a thin yellow pupil. "There he is, he is waking up!", Throws a girl perched on his father's shoulders, as the grunts of the beast intensify.

Slowly, the dragon with turquois and golden scales spreads its wide wings before beginning its stroll for three days of urban show, where 300,000 people are expected. Nestled on his back, manipulators control his mechanical joints, sending smoke and water from his nostrils and ears.

"It looks bigger in real life than in pictures!" Exclaims Tom, 10 years old. "What is interesting for them is also the urban legend behind and the fact that he will stay in the city.They are eager to get on it!", Told AFP his mother, Elodie Lemaire.

Smartphone in hand, with windows and balconies or on the sidewalks crowded, spectators are trying to capture the creature made of leather, canvas and carved wood.

Suddenly, the dragon spits a ball of fire in a sonorous breath that tears the air. "Wow," shouts the audience, turning his surprise into loud applause.

Advancing at 4 km / h, the mastodon makes its way through the compact crowd, commenting on each of his gestures. "He has a funny tongue," slips a spectator. "I saw his teeth," "It looks like Godzilla!", We hear again.

"It's extraordinary," judge Bernard Baude, 70, from Boulogne-sur-Mer. "For now, I put 19/20 because it lacks more than a name," says this former professor, the forehead hidden under a thick woolen hat.

- "Living character" -

To promote exchanges between the inhabitants, the course of the dragon was kept secret. Perched on mobile cranes, musicians accompany the parade with violins, a drums or an electric guitar.

"We have quieted his ardor with the music and we expect him to wake up in the afternoon," confides, an accomplice, François Delarozière, artistic director of the company "La Machine", whose fantastic creatures have already crisscrossed Nantes, Toulouse or Beijing.

"There are really a lot of people for a first scene, it's a nice surprise, people came from all over France, from the United States, from Canada," adds the designer scenographer. As for the Calaisians, they "appropriated the dragon, it's an adventure that starts well."

Arrived on the Place d'Armes, Benoît Saison, amateur artist, sketches the scene on a notebook to try to "transcribe the mythology in the line and the fleeting moment of a movement, an expression, the passage between buildings ".

"It's a beautiful object," he summarizes, moved. "We do not see wood or steel anymore, but a living character, it's successful!"

"The show is very good, but what is fundamental is to change the image of Calais, which has been much associated with migrants in recent years," says Jean-Marc Blouin, 66, came with his little ones -children.

At the end of this operation of 27 million euros - a "waste of public money" for the RN - the dragon is destined to remain in Calais to become a tourist attraction and should allow the creation of 70 jobs.

Because, according to the tale, the Calaisians must realize, at the end of these three days, that this dragon with wild appearances is in fact "a benefactor guardian" of the port city.

© 2019 AFP