Welcome

This is how to keep up in touch with me when I'm on my travels. Hope you like it - please give me feedback as to what you might like to see on it - or not!



Saturday 25 September 2010

What more ice houses?

Another of those coincidences! Saw in the paper that there was to be a talk on ice-houses in Carcassonne.  Having recently seen them and read lots about them, we thought we might have a chance of understanding the talk. And so we did, the speaker being about 80 and very slow-speaking. We didn't learn much new though, especially Jon who managed his afternoon nap in the course of the talk.

Also in the audience were Marie and Michel, the couple we arranged to swop French/English conversation with last time we were out here. We invited them to meet at our house next day to go to the theatre. We had about 45 minutes conversation first, which was good for all of us, being about the same level in our respective languages. The evening started with a very bizarre perfomance of improvised modern dance, Occitan song, accordeon and saxophone, frequently played lying down or whirling around his head. Followed by the Brahms Requiem sung by the departmental choir of the Aude, which was so dynamic it sent me to sleep, and then an electrifying perfomance of new compositions for a newly formed "orchestra" which was almost entirely wind, mostly brass, and 6 percussionists. Once again, we found Dominique there - the botanist whom we bump into at many events in obscure locations.

No comments: