LAmusettes Le Petit Bal au Petit Palais

Last weekend L'Amusette, a dance and re-enactment group from Tampere, arranged a most charming ball at Pikkupalatsi. The guests were adviced to arrive fully dressed so I got dressed at home and, after taking the photos you've seen of my coiffure, I squeezed my corseted and hooped self in to the drivers seat of our car and begun the two hour drive to Tampere. Not the most comfortable way to travel, but all the agony of the drive was forgotten as soon as I saw the place.

I loved that it had several drawing rooms in which to wander. It made the mood of the evening feel very authentic. Like being in Chatsworth House when the duke and duchess are entertaining guests.

On the other end was a small ball room in which music was played almost the entire evening and the ball room floor was always full of happy dancers.

Of course I was so happy to meet Sanna again and Noora finally properly for the first time. There was a lot of chat about dresses and sewing and Noora had just been to Bath so of course we wanted to hear all about that.

And we were happy to have some soldiers present to entertain and dance with the ladies.

© Sanna

The cake and tea was delicious!

© Sanna

We had all kinds of entertainment during the course of the evening. 

Ida danced a passionate solo.

There were also games and fortune telling.

Pia sung for us and Noora played the harp.

You could also get your portrait drawn.

Pia and Petri read aloud extracts from some very scandalous 18th century novels like Fanny Hill,  Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. All very entertaining.

The ball room floor was tiny and I had to pull the train up and I was extremely happy that I was wearing pocket hoops that collapsed so easily. But the size of the room didn't affect the enjoyment from dancing. I'm slowly learning the routines and, despite few blunders in the beginning of Indian Queen, I was mostly able to concentrate on the social aspect of dancing instead of concentrating on the steps. 

© Sanna

The dress did it's job well, but this might have been the last ball I'm wearing it. When all the other girls are wearing cute stripey English style gowns I feel like Marquise de Merteuil in the company of Duchess of Devonshire. In other words, old fashioned. Maybe there will be a robe à la Française meet-up one day. And if such an occasion should come, I would be happy to wear it again, but as long as the prevailing fashion is mostly from 1770's, 1780's and 1790's I think I'll be mostly sticking to false rumps instead of pocket hoops for the time being.

© Sanna

Thank you so much for L'Amusette for making this wonderful ball happen. 

I always take too few photos but you can see more from others through this link.