Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Fête de la Musique

The Fête de la Musique is actually on 21 June, but as it fell on a Monday this year, many places had their celebrations on Sunday. The Arc en Ciel choir sang in a park in Jarnac-Champagne, next to a lovely little lake which helped the sound.

I missed Monday's rehearsal to go to the Fête de la Musique celebration in St Dizant's picnic area next to the little supermarket 1000 Frais et 1 Fred. Music was provided by Les Filadiers, the chantey group from St-Fort-sur-Gironde. The weather was still not good, but at least it didn't rain into the paella.

On the subject of paella, I'm allergic to shellfish so I'd phoned and asked if there was an alternative, to which the answer was no (they were catering for a huge crowd!) but Fred said the shellfish was being added at the end and she'd take out a plateful before the mussels and langoustines and giant prawns went in. Very kind of her, and I was pleased that she remembered in all the flurry.

I warbled along to all the chants marins, in vocalise because I didn't know the words, and eventually E-from-the-Welsh-valleys joined in. We finished the evening with M-f-t-W-v leading Cyfri'r Geifr, and E and I realising we couldn't remember the words of Calon Lân after the first two lines. A very jolly evening.

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