Sunday, June 12, 2011

To the Guillotine?


Foire aux Cerises at St Constant at the weekend. Last year it rained and anyway we were taking a visitor to Toulouse airport so we missed the Sunday events. We went this time but did not need to buy any more cherries. There wasn't much else to see and Rufus was freaking out with the smell of the cattle they were auctioning so after a beer we left.
In the afternoon we thought we would try the Foire at Linac again. Last year we did the Saturday and found nothing of interest but on the Sunday this weekend it was a different story. Lots of stalls and people. There was an exhibition tent displaying a collection of old photographs of past inhabitants of the village. I love these old pictures and occasionally buy them for sources of detail for costumes. I took a photograph of some of them:


Aren't they splendid? I love the expression of the groom top left.

Another attraction  was the medieval fair and here are some pictures of that:

I cropped this one to remove power lines across the top!
The sky looks angrier than these combatants and it rained heavily shortly afterwards. We had made it to the car by then.

Love the shoes!
 A good afternoon out and I managed to get a few pictures for my next calendar - 'Portals of the Auvergne':



On Monday I tackled that bucket of cherries. Several jars of jam, two of pickled cherries and four bottles of fruit in strong liquor (Prune and Ratafia).  I was so chuffed with the result that Jim went out and picked a bowl of wild strawberries which I also turned into jam.



I have organised two more Workawayers who are coming next week. Bart from Tasmania, a guitarist who arrives on Sunday and Yan a biology student from China. He is at Uni in Bremen, Germany. 
I hope to get the boule piste done this time. Cyprien has taken his ponies out of the Redwood field where the boule piste is to be although there is still a lot of long grass.

My laptop is fixed - no charge. It would appear that the motherboard failed - a known problem and the manufacturers are footing the bill. It is now on it's way back here. I have a small dispute ongoing with the courier because it took six days to get to Cardiff and has still not reached here after four. It is supposed to be a three day service. I know we live out in the sticks but we are only 20 minutes from the nearest station.

Today (Saturday) against Jim's better judgement but I was keen we went to Capdenac again for the 'street theatre' L'Autre Festival Derriere Le Hublot. You may remember it in my blog last year. We agreed we would not pay to see anything this time. The weather was fine and we needed to pick up some paint in Figeac anyway.

The main experience for us was something entitled Potages et Potagers which you would expect had something to do with vegetable gardening. I suppose it had - loosely.
It was free and we had to be at a certain place by 16.15pm and only the first 20 people would be in. It appeared after a long wait (we got there early) that we were getting a ride to an allotment down by the river in a cart drawn by a tractor - most uncomfortable. The three elderly and large ladies who pushed in front of us in the queue took one look at it and declined. We felt as though we were in a tumbril.

Me struggling to get out of the truck on the return journey
Anyway the tumbril took us to a large vegetable garden down on the banks of the river Lot. Jim commented that he wasn't impressed with the vegetables. But that wasn't really the point of the show. We were all expected to sit on these chairs:


- which we cheerfully did after the uncomfortable ride - and facing the vegetable garden and two 'actors' who proceeded to construct the artistic installation. There were some jumping beans but I didn't manage to capture those on camera. 




 The whole event was accompanied by a verbal soundtrack but as it was in French and we only understood one word in ten the content remained as elusive and intriguing as the rest. The event was rounded off with an invitation to look at the allotment and to sample some refreshment set out for us - a kind of vegetable drink - not unpalatable.

Jim raising his glass
A very relaxing hour if a little perplexing - shall we try the street theatre again next year?

The gem of the week was a visit to St Santin de Maurs d'Aveyron for an evening concert. The programme was Mozart, Bach, Saint Saens and Handel played by Olivier Pons (violin) and Helen Linden (violinchello) and the string orchestra 'Figeacordes'. An excellent evening although it finished well past Jim's bedtime. Typically French it started twenty-five minutes late- they have no sense of urgency and consequently it was half eleven before we left.

Olivier Pons conducting the orchestra

The village of St Santin is worthy of mention as it has one foot in the Cantal and another in the Aveyron. This results in it having two churches, two maries and, as it happens two bars. Here are the two churches - we attended the one on the left.




On the work front Jim has been mending and replacing fences and fence posts and I have now done 40 patchwork blocks. I have also started some pickled walnuts.





The pumpkins and sunflowers are growing well although no flowers as yet. And the grape vine has nearly reached the top of the pergola and has several bunches of grapes on it.



And to finish - a word about comments. It is nice to get feedback if only to have my spelling, grammar or facts corrected. To make comments on my blogs you need a Google Account. Google 'Blogger Account' and select 'Create Blooger Account' from the list and fill in the form. This does not cost and you won't get a lot of spam but you will be able to make comments and even create your own blog which is fun - give it a go!

Ragged Robin

1 comment:

  1. All most interesting. I'd borrow some of those men at arms for Temporary Shelter - we start at Agincourt and fast forward. I hope you are filing these little gems away against the time when it will be Fournoulès' turn to mount a fete. You have the Skakespeare and cucumber idea, the men at arms would go nicely with that and you could serve cherryade in the interval as a true British experience. I hope there will be some cherry jam left over by October. Pouring with rain today and the gardens are open in Colwinston - we were going over to Heather and Andrew's which is open as part of ngs. But everything is soaked. Pickled walnuts too were most excellent.

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