CHARLES PERRAULT popularized the fairy tale with his collection ‘contes de ma mere l’oye’ ( tales of mother goose ) in 1697, but the first truly similar tale to the one we know today was published in 1740 by MADAME GABRIELLE-SUZANNE BARBOT DE GALLON DE VILLENEUVE as part of a collection of stories ‘la jeune amériquaine, et les contes marins’ ( told by an old woman during a long sea voyage ). Mme. de villeneuve wrote fairy tale romances drawn from earlier literature and folk tales for the entertainment of her salon friends.
we knew that the most picturesque castles were built in france, in the loire valley. it was decided to have a closer look. mid september 1989 the small group of visual development artists, who had worked in london for a few months on a later shelved version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, took a propeller flight from london to tours. from there our reference trip through the LOIRE VALLEY started. CHAMBORD was the first castle we saw, followed by CHEVERNY, CHAUMONT and BEAUREGARD. then BLOIS, CHENONCEAUX, SAUMUR, AZAY-LE-RIDEAUX and VILLANDRY. a lot of castles for 3 1/2 days. and so many details to study, – the architecture, the furniture, the paintings, the colors, light and the whole atmosphere. I had seen a lot of castles in germany. but the loire castles are special and connected to so much history. I took hundreds of photos and did a video-documentary, afterwards I tried to capture all that in my designs. here is a small selection of them, more tomorrow…
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my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 45 years I lived and worked in exciting places around the world. after 7 years of teaching in singapore I am back at my homebase in manila, working on a few more books.
One1more2time3's Weblog 
the wellknown version in France was written by Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711-1780).The tale is part of her book “le magasin des enfants” published in 1757.
Truly wonderful! I love that you get a real sense of ‘feeling’ when looking at these. And that in itself is a masterpiece.
Would love to see the video documentary you made! Youtube it! 😀
from hans –
from what I heard, don hahn included some footage in WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY.