Named the “Yellow Mill”, this refuge of the clown Slava Polunin is a hidden nugget of French heritage.
A yellow house straight out of a fairy tale, covered with childish frescoes created by Brazilian street artists, chairs hanging from a Japanese cherry tree, a small Korean house filled with teapots brought from Asia in a 4-hectare plot of land classified as a "remarkable garden", a moon-shaped water pool, a swing surrounded by rose bushes, a colorful caravan... Welcome to the world of Russian clown Slava Polunin, worthy of the world of Alice in the Lands of Wonders.
Nestled in Crécy-la-Chapelle in Seine-et-Marne (77) in the Île-de-France region, the Moulin Jaune shelters a wonderful and dreamlike world which offers an enchanted interlude to its visitors, less than an hour from the capital city. It is in this green setting that the Russian clown Slava Polunin, founder of Slava's Snowshow and numerous street shows, has been running a creative laboratory in his image since the year 2000, where around fifty artists in all genera reside for several days. The Moulin Jaune has thus become the headquarters of the "Academy of Madmen" which he presides over, and its motto in Russian is engraved on the red path which winds along the Grand Morin river: "Don't grow up, it's is a trap."
“The Moulin jaune symbolizes an art of living that combines creation, nature and daily life,” explains Sara Lubtchansky, general delegate of the Moulin Jaune, to Le Parisien. “Here, we like to take our time and party.” This real breath of air located around forty kilometers from Paris where the Russian artist has staged his offbeat and colorful universe, populated by unusual objects, allows you to escape the gloom and almost suspend time. “The first ten years we lived without a watch, without a clock, without a mirror. Here we don’t age, time is suspended.”
This unique spot, whose immense park of the estate, an ode to childhood and freedom, was classified as “Regional Heritage of Île de France” in 2018, can be discovered through events organized on weekends. on its official website from April until fall 2024, reservation required. If the Yellow Mill house cannot be visited because it is inhabited by Slava half of the year, its enchanting garden is open to the public during events. Promenade en rose, tea dance, special Paris Olympic Games shows, it will be an opportunity to take in the sights.
