Welcome back to Frog Blog for what is a delayed update. I’m not terribly busy at the moment (this is August in rural France after all!) so I’ve no excuse for my lateness either. Apologies. To dive right in: first off I’m pleased to say that Louis is pretty much 100% healed now – the meds the vet gave him did a great job and the wound’s nearly gone. In fact, he was in such good shape that we didn’t even need to take him back for a check-up on Monday, to universal relief.
To get him to take his tablets, we crush them up and mix them into some soft cat food. The alternative – trying to force a whole pill down his throat – is a challenging feat that many cat owners will know to be a bloody and painful exercise in futility. It has taken years to find a brand of wet food he likes too, but we’ve found one at last – the most expensive one in the supermarket, bien sur.
It’s been an uneventful week all told, with the notable exception of our first public concert with Musique en Herbe. Before I get to that though I shall give a quick summary of the preceding days. Work-wise, it’s largely quiet as I mentioned, but we are meeting a new client this afternoon. I’ve also nearly finished a website for Musique en Herbe. They have an existing one but it’s a bit of a train wreck and as soon as Alain heard what we did for a living, he asked us about redoing it. I’m fairly pleased with the new one so far and hope the gang like it.
We’ve also had some developments regarding the wind farms this week. There are 3 sites local to us that have been targeted, but one of the projects has just been abandoned. The official line is that this was as a result of some preliminary studies ruling out the site, but unofficially it sounds like the scale of the protest they encountered was too much for them – an encouraging result. The French passion for protests and strikes can be quite vexing at times, but it’s also a pleasing display of democracy at work when the public can force a government U-turn like that.
We had our usual double rehearsal on Thurs and Fri of last week. The first, with the sub-group Music’ Friend, was largely successful if still a bit rough around the edges. The Friday one made me more nervous as there was only a small handful of songs that we managed to play all the way through without mistakes. At that session, we were presented with ring binders listing all the songs in the set, in order, and with the sheet music. It would have been a fantastic resource a few weeks back but the night before the gig, it was about as much use as a one legged man in an arse kicking contest.
We left feeling less than prepared that evening, and also a bit dubious about the Fete in general. It was 31 degrees that day, and it was lovely the day after, but the forecasters had had it in for Saturday all week long. And when the day finally came, they were all vindicated. It was overcast, damp and surprisingly cool. La Fete du Couteau is apparently a huge event: it’s normal for them to get 20,000 people – but this year the crowds were put off in droves. The heavens were predicted to open around 8pm, exactly when we were supposed to start playing. As such, our venue was moved from being outside on the main square in Nontron to being inside the mairie building. Our band with all the sound and lighting equipment takes up a lot of room so there was only room for about 50 spectators. Outside we could have accommodated hundreds, but then maybe it was all for the best thinking about it.
We had a sound check at around 6.30pm followed by a beer or two while we waited for the OK to get started. We’d invited pretty much all our local friends, but understandably, the weather put everyone off – apart from Carol, her daughter Jenny and one of her son’s Evan who was keen to hear us play. Jenny got here with her 2 boys about a week ago for their annual outing, and they’ve been doing their best to enjoy the sunny days and entertain the kids on the gloomy ones.
Anyway, we ploughed through our 28 song list, interspersed with a few dance acts, in what felt to us like seconds. Carol and Jenny stayed for about half of it before taking Evan back home for bed. All told, we didn’t actually make too many mistakes, and the crowd that was there seemed appreciative of us, but the lack of practise was very evident – well, to me anyway. Musique en Herbe count among their number a semi-professional photographer so there will hopefully be some decent pics of the night to share soon. In the interim, some friends of the band captured a couple clips which I’ve included below as evidence Update: Musique en Herbe recorded the entire concert and have been sharing it on their Facebook page. There’s a new selction of clips below.
After the gig we helped them pack away all the equipment and then headed back home for a cleanser. Sunday felt like it should have been a hangover day, but neither of us had drunk much so were actually quite functional. Nonetheless, we took it easy and had a TV day. The following evening, Bryan and Carol invited us down for aperitifs. It was a beautiful evening so we sat out on their patio and chatted while the kids ran amok. We may try and get them all round here for BBQ before they head back, weather permitting.
Ok, I don’t think I’ve much else to say apart from that tomorrow is our monthly curry day, which neatly excuses us from the weekly jam with Musique en Herbe. We were due to host, but Philippe is freshly back from a month in Australia visiting Francoise and is keen to share his photos with us, so we’re off to his instead. Right, that’s all from me. A la semaine prochaine.