So sad. I pray he is able to stand strong during this time.

What an awful tragedy for Christophe!  I cannot imagine what he must be experiencing right now.  I wish for comfort and strength for him.  

This is devastating news and a tremendous loss for both Christophe and all those who appreciate his Epinette des Vosges. I hope he will be able to recover and begin to promote the instrument again.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Oh that is such awful news. What a loss of so many wonderful instruments.
It must be surreal and heartbreaking for him.

--
Site Owner

Those irritated by grain of sand best avoid beach.
-Strumelia proverb c.1990

Hello everyone, 

I am sharing a sad news that our friend Christophe Toussaint, building French Zither (Epinette des Vosges) and spreading the sweet song of that instrument during workshop, training and concert (and much more) has lost everything during a fire of the house in which he had his workshop but also a collection of more that 150 instrument.

He opened a funding in an attempt to collect some help in order to restart his activity. I am sharing the link if that is permitted, feel free to help him. Not sure if the Leetchi platform is convenient for you, if not you can connect with Christophe directly I believe

The link is here : https://www.leetchi.com/en/c/aide-suite-a-lincendie-de-latelier-et-la-salle-dexpo-de-christophe-toussaint-8334880?utm_source=copylink&utm_medium=social_sharing

More can be found on his facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/christophe.toussaint.754

I participated in a workshop 3 days before the disaster !

Here a a few photos, before and after : 

I took that picture in November 2023 when I attended for the first time

We had some good time on May 2nd and 3rd, 2026 during a workshop, then few days later during the night between May 4th and 5th: 

I cannot say what he's feeling at the moment as I never faced such a disaster. I am personally affected of course but this is so minor compared to what he lost.

If you don't know Christophe, he has many recording on youtube, but also a recent report was filmed at his workshop a year ago, here is a link (I turned on english for the audio, but feel free to switch back to french for the original audio, not sure how good youtube will be to translate when he's singing !!)

https://youtu.be/87yF5PrwxdY?si=Q86o13OpmaT6IpF_

and in french (better)

https://youtu.be/87yF5PrwxdY?si=uxoGQcsphC0CqIbm