Chacun se prend de mode
Pour les globes mouvants!’
On a fine evening at the end of August 1783, the peasants of Gonesse were astonished by a ‘bolt from the blue’ in the shape of Professor Charles’s balloon. ‘What is it?’ they exclaim—‘some strange demon, or a visitant from Mars.’ The machine, which had no occupant, King Louis having objected to a man risking his neck, only escaped destruction by the interference of the parish priest. Here, surely, was an opportunity for the fan, by which, as a matter of fact, it was not slow in profiting. Balloon-fans became at once the mode, and ‘La Mode’ appropriated the balloon; hats ‘au ballon,’ everything—dresses, ribbons, even hair, ‘au ballon.’
On December 1st of the same year, MM. Charles and Robert made their ascent in the gardens of the Tuileries. We therefore have a fan representing the departure of ‘les deux intrépides,’ with a group of spectators, among whom are two members of the Royal House, ‘des seigneurs quantité.’ On the reverse, two lines of music and five stanzas of verse, of which the first runs as follows:
‘De l’aerostatique sphère
françois admirez la splandeur
voyez sa forme circulaire
coup seé par un Equateur
ensélevant elle présente
le sigue qui nous attendrit