Nantes (AFP)
The original sketch of the Petit Beurre or the mold of the first Paille d'or wafers: those nostalgic for childhood and keen on industrial history will enjoy a Nantes exhibition on the golden age of the LU cookie factory is distinguished by its ability to innovate.
From 1846, when the spouses Lefèvre and Utile launched the family adventure in Nantes, "all generations of bosses have always understood (...) that innovation was global, that is to say, it we had to innovate on the logo, on the creation of the cookies, on the design of the cookies, on the forms of packaging ", explains Bertrand Guillet, director of the Château des ducs de Bretagne.
The exhibition he presents, "LU, a century of innovation (1846-1957)", will be visible from Saturday until January 3, 2021 and is based on this observation: "great biscuit makers at the end there were plenty of them in the 19th century and today we forgot about them "while the LU brand remained world famous, believes Mr. Guillet.
With some 460 objects in front of them - only original pieces - the visitor will understand how the Lefèvre-Utile family pulled out of the game for a hundred years to become an international brand, which in 1957 adopted a logo almost unchanged until today: the initials of the founding couple forming three white bars on a red background.
"This exhibition is simple, but very colorful, very joyful, not at all anxiety-provoking and I find that it is perfect for a deconfinement", estimates Mr. Guillet, whose Castle has the largest collection of original objects of the brand LU, shown in part during a previous exhibition in 1999.
- A symbolic factory tower -
In the half-light of the castle, succeed in the windows boxes of cakes of all shapes, paintings representing the workshops of the factory or promotional works signed by famous artists (Alfons Mucha, Firmin Bouisset), with the added bonus of a sweet smell of cookie floating in the air.
The designers of the exhibition wanted to reconstruct, with the help of a Parisian perfumery, these particular notes that have marked generations.
"Depending on the weather and the wind, the city of Nantes embalmed this pleasant smell of cookies," says a little character printed in a comic book style that guides the youngest through the exhibition.
This boy is the emblematic "Little schoolboy" with his cape and beret, whose visitors will be able to discover the first sketches.
Other objects that should interest enthusiasts and speak to as many people as possible: the first drawing of a Petit Beurre, the mold that was used to design the Paille d'or or the design of Raymond Loewy, an American who is at the origin of the Coca-Cola bottle and the LU logo as we know it today.
Finally, an architectural component seeks to tell the story of the factory. Here again, the key word is innovation: the LU family innovated "in the way it characterized the factory in a city, with a real architectural program, extremely symbolic towers, of which there is always one left in Nantes ", underlines Bertrand Guillet. It has been restored and has become a cultural center.
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