Firstly this is a double city, like Buda and Pest; London and Westminster; Boston and Cambridge. Charleville is the new town, built to plan and with extensive Vauban-style ramparts; and Mezieres is the older part, each sitting in their own part of a double loop on the Meuse. The Festival is in a series of venues across town. The first was at an Arts Centre, it was explained to me. While we were waiting, I chatted to a lady from Charleville (I did make the mistake of calling it Charleroi: No! I’m not Belgian! She said), who told me about the arts scene in the city; and about Mezieres. Turns out she’s a clinical psychologist, involved in diagnosing special educational needs. She thought Britain was ahead of France in terms of understanding.

The first show was a double bill, of artist collaborations. A marionnettist and a writer came up with a strongly feminist piece about the conflict between gynaecology and male-oriented medicine: as the programme puts it, “the cruel truth of obstetric and gynaecology violence.” The doctor was played by a rod puppet, with gestures from the left hand of the costume. Good attention to posture and gesture. He was then brought into contact, dialogue it would seem, with an animated clitoris, which detached itself from the rest of the genitalia, and proceeded to lecture the doctor, and us, on the history of representation of female parts: a series of Sheila-na-gigs and earth goddess sculptures, and finishing with Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde an explicit portrait of a Turkish sultan’s favourite. An interesting section followed on STDs, done with a water bath on an overhead projector. It finished with the clitoris embracing the doctor. It was clear what was happening, so I didn’t need to understand the language.

The second part of the double bill was more a report back into an action theatre project. The puppet in question was a figure on a stand, which had been taken to a variety of everyday workplaces: shops, garages, kitchens and so on. Pictures were then taken, with people shown as blurs on the print, while the character remained still. They demonstrated by bringing up a dozen volunteers to pose for some shots, with the audience as backdrop. We could then see the photographer editing in photoshop to get the effect. I felt it would have benefitted from a sound score, but that’s just me. Again, hadn’t a clue what the guy was saying.

After lunch the venue was ESNAM theatre, another 200 seater: the show was Manitoba, based on a book of a real life story of two young women on the run in the vast Canadian forest with only a few weapons and a survival manual. They played it for laughs, and quite a weird piece it became. It was a series of accounts of potential deaths, drawn from the manual I think.

I had a couple of hours before the last show of the day, so taking my psychologist friend’s advice, went for a walk, across two bridges over the Meuse to Mezières. My Dutch neighbours on the campsite told me they had had a lovely cycle ride to the cathedral. I’d walked far enough, so I missed the pleasure of the stained glass windows.

The final show back at ESNAM was, I think, about the nature of media and celebrity. The action here was more from the actors, who moved like mimes on a minimal set. This compared to the last one which was complex, with rotating vertical shutters, and a stage full of detail. We were also treated to a section with the pop singer’s animus, as a ventriloquist performance. We then got a view of the ‘act’ with a costume in shiny spandex with CDs attached, and a mask: echoes of Clean Bandit in the costume, and Europop in the content, interrupted by fans and critics. Given that I couldn’t make out what was being said, I’m not really in a position to judge the statements of the piece. I did however, admire the athleticism and control of the performers.