Opera aux fenetres.

Last night we went to the old village of La Bastide d'Armagnac to watch a performance of the Opera at the Windows. This takes place in the "Place Royale" in the centre of the village, a stunning site for such a show. For a period of 10 days professional and amateur musicians, singers and actors get together to produce the show which takes place for just 2 performances. The theme is somewhat mysterious but the basis of the show was explained afterwards by the producer. A long time ago the surface of the" place royale" was of hard sand and the villagers gathered there to play quilles and boules . When the square was paved (although it is now not an even surface so it must have been done over a century ago) it was forbidden by the local council to be used for the games. From this little bit of history the show was based on the word "interdit" (forbidden). Somewhere along the line the story of Snow White came into the show! I think it was because they were trying to imagine a world with no such word as forbidden, a fairy tale world.
There were several nests of house martins directly under on of the balconies and despite all the noise going on around they continued to fly into their nests to feed their young adding an extra "song" to the show!
Despite the complications of the "plot" it was an amazing evening with the hard work of all the participants being fully appreciated by the large crowd.

Video below.

More aperitifs.

On Saturday the 18th July we were invited to Olivier and Barbara's. They too had received a "mai" (tree) at the same time as we did as they were also new to the village. As is the custom they had to "water" it, like we did, and offer aperitifs to the neighbours.
We strolled down the lane at about 7pm and, surprisingly, we weren't the first people to arrive. Mme Gourdon and Mme Lamothe were sitting near the entrance to the garden and we said hello to them before going to say hello to Olivier and Barbara and giving them a bottle of champagne and some Smarties for little Romeo. Olivier offered us a drink, which we accepted, and I then realised that we had made the faux pas of not walking round everyone first and kissing or shaking hands with them! One day I shall remember to do so! Michel Quintaillou was there with his 2 sons and one girlfriend who had also been to our party. They didn't stay too long as they were going in to the fete de la Madeleine. Bernard and Chantal were there as well as M Lamothe, Sophie and Phillippe, Christine and Dominique.. M and Mme Lamothe look very frail, not surprising as they are in their 80's but they do seem much frailer than when we first came. Jean-Marc and Pascale soon arrived, closely followed by Pascal and his wife (who I have not met before). I escorted Mme Lamothe and Mme Gourdon, one on each arm, down the garden to look at Mme Gourdon's vegetable garden (which is immediately behind the garden of Olivier and Barbara). Mme Gourdon has a very impressive vegetable plot, she must grow for Jean-Marc and family as well as it is quite a size.
Several more people arrived, some whom we had not met before, including the young farmer and his family and his mother. Second time we have met them, must find out their names!
We got talking to Pascal's wife (must find out her name too!) and got on very well with her. Her father was in the military and she had lived in Germany in her youth. She spoke a little English, enough for her and Nigel to communicate in a mixture of French and English, and we chatted for a long time. I never got round, though, to asking why she didn't come with Pascal to our party. She did say though that she doesn't go to many of the village "do's". They are from Nancy and have been here for 11 years, Pascal is a fireman at the military base in Mont de Marsan as well as playing the drums in a local banda. She doesn't seem to be into that and says that she goes to the Loto, at which point I asked if I could go with her sometime. I think that it is like bingo, held in different villages most weeks in the autumn and winter. I think I would enjoy it and also meet more people. They have some good prizes too!! I also had a long chat with the young farmers mother, I have met her before and chatted when out with Rambo. As the evening wore on I noticed that most of the women had disappeared and asked Pascals wife why they had left. She explained that is what happens in this part of the world!! Ladies go home and men stay on chatting and drinking!! By the time that we left (about 12.30am) there was only Christine, Dominique's wife left to represent the gentler sex!
It was a very good evening and so nice that we are now made to feel so welcome in our little community of Perron.

Fete de la Madeleine.

The fete de la Madeleine takes place each year, over 5 days, in Mont de Marsan. It is one of the largest fetes in the south west and people come from all over. The town centre is closed to traffic and many people camp in and around the town.
I went in on the Saturday morning to watch the "encierro". I had a walk around the town first and saw all the temporary bars and restaurants that had been set up in the town centre. The streets were full of people and "bandas" were parading and playing in the streets. Bandas are orchestras that play music at all the fetes in the region. Many towns have their own banda and colourful uniform. I saw one banda who had a little boy, of about 6, playing the drum and tapping his foot to the rythem of the music.
Mont de Marsan has a large bull ring and one of the main activities, over the 5 days, is bullfighting. It is very popular in this part of the world and it seems that they have some famous matadors who perform here each year. The "encierro" is the running of the bulls and a part of the street from the main roundabout to the bull ring was fenced off for this. The bulls ran from the bullring through the street and then into a lorry that was parked at the end of the safety railings and then back again.

Fete de Castandet.

The fete de Castandet took place on the 10th-13th July and we were finally able to get to it. The first year that we were here Nigel was suffering from bad toothache, last year he was in hospital so this year we were hoping that it would be 3rd time lucky!
Saturday evening was the bodega, food and drinks, followed by a capea. A capea is a demonstration by young boys from the bullfighting school who show off their prowess with some young bull calves!
We had had a meal earlier so just went to have a drink and watch the capea which was due to start at 9.30 but of course, this being Les Landes, it didn't start until 10.15! By then it was dark but the temporary arena was floodlit so that was no problem. I suspect that the youngest boys were about 14 and the older ones 16 or 17. Although the calves are not that big they were very agile and fleet of foot and I wouldn't have wanted to be standing in there with them. Each of the lads "did his bit", a new calf for each one and showed off their ability with the cape. They were encouraged by their "teacher" and family from the sidelines which brought to my mind the similarity of parents the world over. Although in my case, it was parents shouting and encouraging their children from the sidelines of the football pitch! At the end of each "turn" the lads strutted round the ring to cheers and clapping from the crowd. Sadly, for the last lad, the final calf didn't seem to get the hang of things and was quite happy to just stand and wonder what he was supposed to do! By this time Nigel had had enough of the noise and the hard wooden seating so we decided to leave.
Monday night was the final night of the fete and the big meal. We went down about 8.30 knowing that things wouldn't get going until quite a bit later but in time to have an aperitif first. In retrospect we could have probably had half a dozen aperos in the time we were waiting! By the time we had joined up with neighbours from Perron (about 9.45) and decided to sit down, we found that most of the tables had been reserved by people writing their names on the paper tablecloths. We finally got organised and they set up an extra table for us so we were all able to sit together. I have to say that we have had better meals. The soup was fine, the salad nicoise was a stodgy mess of rice, tuna and haricot beans. This was followed by "tete de veau", calves head, in sauce ravigote. I managed to eat a little of it, can't let the side down, and if one can avoid the fatty bits I have to say that it was very tasty. Nigel on the other hand just served himself some of the sauce which he wiped up with his bread. Next was steak and chips, the steak was fine and a lot of it too but the chips appeared later and were barely cooked and very oily. Desser was ice cream which was apparently OK but I couldn't face any more food! Just before we finished eating it started to rain but thankfully not too heavily and not enough for everyone to get up and rush for cover. We left then, giving a lift to Pascale and one of her daughters, and left the others to return to the bar. A good evening, despite the food, in good company.

Trip to Ariege.

We were invited to join in the 60th birthday celebrations of Corry, a Dutch friend of ours, which were to be held in the village hall in Artigat on the 6th July. We were lucky to be offered the use of the holiday house of our friends Jez and Caroline in Le Fossat so we decided to go for a long weekend. The previous Thursday saw us packing up and installing Rambo in the car ready for the drive over there. Thankfully the weather was cloudy, the previous few days we had had temperatures up to 40C, so it was much better for travelling. We used the sat nav, successfully, for the first time although it was somewhat of a magical mystery tour! After a brief stop at the patisserie, for pizza, in Lezat we arrived at Caoutelle at 6.30 and opened up the house. It's quite some while since anyone was there so we had to fight our way through the cobwebs to open up the shutters. The first job was to sweep up all the dead bees which had somehow managed to find a way into the house. After making up the bed and letting Rambo stretch his legs we settled down with the pizza, a glass of wine and finished with a game of Scrabble before going to bed.
On Friday morning we went into Pamiers and did some shopping at Carrefour before heading back to Fossat and a long,lazy lunch at "chez Janine". Back at Caoutelle where we found Rambo very happy to see us return and off to bed for a siesta!
We had invited Mike and Jik for dinner in the evening so after the siesta it was time to start preparing the meal. Sadly the weather was heavy and thundery so we had to abandon plans of eating outside. It was good to see them again and we had a very pleasant evening with them.
On Saturday morning Nigel went over to St Martin d'Oydes to call on Sjef who we thought was back from Holland as indeed he was. Nigel had not long been returned when Sjef, who had decided to go out for a walk, called in to say hello to me as well, a nice surprise. We were invited to Martin and Miekes for Saturday evening and on the way there we called in to say hello to Rudd and Kitty some more Dutch friends of ours who have a holiday home in Bajou. Then on to Landry where, after a look at all the animals and the veg. garden we spent a pleasant evening, on the terrace, catching up with Martin and Mieke.
On Sunday morning Nigel and Rambo walked down to Fossat to the boulangerie and 8 to 8 ( as if a shop in rural France would actually keep those hours) to pick up a few necessities and then we drove over to Carol. There was no-one at home so I left a note saying that we would call again the next day.
Sunday afternoon we went over to Mike and Jiks where I had arranged with Jik to watch the me Wimbledon mens finals. Unfortunately it was a 5 set final and we had to leave after the 4th set in order to go back to Caoutelle to prepare for the party.
The party was to start at 8pm and we had been told that everyone had to be there on time! An unusual occurrence in this part of the world! It was a good evening, about 75% Dutch and most of Corrys family had come down for the party. I was pleased to meet up with several of my old Scrabble friends who gave me a warm welcome. The Artigat dancers gave a display and Corry and Hans did a tour of the hall on a bicycle, Corry riding pillion to great cheers from the assembled guests. The theme of the evening was the "60's" and Mike had but together a great tape of many of my old favourites! Various people did sketches and songs throughout the evening. Tapas and sangria were served at the start of the evening and later we were served with grilled sardines, sausages, pork ribs and salad. Sadly there seemed to be a huge amount of food left over but I learned that most of it was used up next day. The evening continued with dancing and even Nigel managed to take to the floor!! At midnight, which heralded the start of Corrys birthday, we were served with Champagne before it was time for everyone to take their leave after a very good evening.
On Monday morning we went back to Carol and found Dominique and Jean-Marc at home along with a couple of their friends. We sat and chatted for a while and admired baby Ines who is now almost 6 months old. They have finished converting Nigels "workshop" which led off the sitting room. About 3/4 of the space is now a sitting area with French windows out to the rear of the house and the other 1/4 is a separate toilet and utility room. There is now a door from there into the kitchen. They have recently started work on the bathroom and there is now a shower in there and the bath has been taken out, they hope to complete the work in the next couple of weeks. We walked round to the rear of the house and said hello to the horses who were standing under the trees swishing their tails to try and get rid of the flies. We then did a tour of the "garden" which has sadly become very overgrown although they are managing to find the time to grow some vegetables. When I look at it now I marvel that we managed to keep on top of it all!
On Monday evening we had invited Tim and Tina for a meal and we had a very pleasant evening with them before going to bed for our last evening at Caoutelle. After packing up, tidying the house and checking that all was safe we left on Tuesday morning and drove over to Tajan to have lunch with Kate and Peter before returning home in the evening.