Le Jacquard Français has been weaving at Gérardmer, in the Vosges, since 1888. Fifty-four jacquard looms, eighty people on the floor, and a mill that still does every stage on site, from spooling the yarn through to the finishing.

What they make is damask, which means the pattern reads on both faces of the cloth, matte on one side and lit on the other. It is why a piece of theirs looks like something even folded over a rail. The yarn is combed long-fibre cotton or linen, and they develop more than forty colours a year, each tested against light.

France named them an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant in 2010, the designation for companies holding a rare industrial craft. There are not many weavers left doing this at this scale in Europe.