Feu de St Jean

 As we come up to the fifth anniversary of our move to France it seems only fitting to reflect on some of the things which have made it such a good move for us. Many of them involve our love of traditional music and dancing.

In June 2011 we discovered the tradition of the midsummer fete of Feu de St Jean which happens in many villages on weekends around 23/24 June.

I remember that first with particular affection as it was at Salles where we had been going to a traditional dancing workshop and had met lots of other musicians and dancers. Our welcome that evening to the village celebration ( Salles is 50kms away from where we live) and the great atmosphere of the evening made us feel so much "at home" in our adopted new country.

Trevor is now seen as a key member of the musicians de Salles

We went to a couple of feu de St Jean evenings this year, both with traditional dancing, and last weekend it was back to Salles - this time as "regulars".




When we first moved we had lots of vague ideas of the sort of things we might fill our time with when we lived here but, although we had heard and seen a bit of traditional music on our holidays in the area , we did not realise quite how strong the Occitan tradition is. It has been for us they key to making friends, learning new things, and living a very busy and happy retirement.         Aici sén pla