crazy days of summer

Is the world spinning faster? I think not, it's just that time of year again.

July and August in SW France means fêtes and festivals, fireworks and feasts.

There is so much going on that it is impossible to fit everything in. This weekend, the last in July, is always the date of our local village fete, unfortunately it is also the weekend of the fete at the village which is almost a second home for us as it is where we go to dance every Friday evening. Luckily for us the last couple of years we have been able to do both as the main events ( at least for us) are on different evenings during the weekend.

So Saturday night saw us joining many friends at a traditional bal in Salles dancing under the stars on a beautiful evening. It's 50 kms to Salles but as always when we arrived we were not the only ones to have travelled, it was a case of all the usual faces!

Sunday it was back to home territory for the moules à la paille repas at Puylagarde. Another lovely warm evening and the threatened thunderstorms held off until we were safely tucked up in bed.

 

 

This has become one of our favourite events of the summer and this year was even better as we had a crowd of friends joining us.

I always love the atmosphere of these huge village meals, hundreds of locals, second homers, summer visitors all in holiday mood. It's so much better these days too as when we go to a gathering like this we are never on our own.







Tonight we will be dancing again, later in the week we are going to an outdoor Offenbach opera at Bruniquel and next weekend its back to juggling festivals, fireworks and meals with friends.

Voyages and dreams

The folk'n'jazz summer concerts have developed as the years have passed and a lot of preparation goes into making sure they are successful. June , July and August concerts use outside venues and  the expected audience is hopefully swelled by the  "swallows" and other tourists in the area. Each month a significant sum is raised for a charity chosen by the host venue. These days the majority of the performers are French, ranging in age from 39 to 80 plus so folk it isn't , jazz it isn't but interesting and varied it certainly is.

This month the theme is " voyages and dreams", as our usual practice venue was not available  everyone came here. A voyage for everyone else and a dream of an evening for me - 17 people around the table ( more than I would have thought possible), lots of good food and wine, music being played in all corners of the garden  AND the weather did not spoil it despite threats of rain earlier in the day.

It was the sort of party I have dreamt of having since we came here - oops - sorry that should read rehearsal not party of course! In fact everyone did work hard too but it was such a lovely evening. We are so lucky to be living our dream and thanks to the music and dancing our social life keeps getting better and better.

                                   aiçi sén pla

"farting the floor"

A thank you from the hosts of last night's free trad bal in Caylus reads :

Bravo les musiciens et les danseurs qui nous ont fait " péter le plancher " soirée réussi et toujours autant d'ambiance .....

auto translated as:

Kudos to the musicians and dancers who made us "fart the floor" evening and always so much atmosphere.....

Better on so many levels than last year when there was the ancestral lineage of a thunderstorm, this year it was a hot night with almost a full moon plus the benefit of a wooden dance floor. 

We go to two dance workshops each week during the winter months , one nearby in Caylus, the other 50 kms away at Salles sur Cerou near Cordes, where TC is one of the musicians. Last night a large contingent from both groups arrived to dance support Trevor and the musicians of Salles  "Sallebande" at a summer only guinguette venue in Caylus, run by a couple who also dance.

Sallebande

So there we were, as far as we know the only English people, at a French traditional bal where we knew almost all of the dancers personally and TC was  playing for the  bal.We were in our element.

It was like a great big summer party - one of those relaxed summer evenings the French do so well, lots of music ,dancing, chips and sausages and carafes of wine. No need to ask further why it is I feel so much at home here. Luckily my back had improved sufficiently for me to be able to do at least a bit of dancing and today I can still move!

The summer is really under way 

and    

 

aiçi sén pla