Winners and losers

Phew -- what a day! It started with a trip to Albas for l'Art Caché, as seen last year. A new feature this year was a photo competition with the theme of "the impact of humans on the landscape". A great opportunity to bring on my favourite pylon :) A phone call and email from the organisers prompted me to be sure of arriving for the prize-giving this morning. Not only did two of my four photos make it to the final 15, to be displayed in a travelling exhibition, but my pylon won second prize. So now I have a massive (A3) print of it. Plus 25 postcards and some free concert tickets. But the biggest thrill was jury members and other people spontaneously coming up to me and saying how much they liked it.

It was a really, really hot day. We walked around half of the exhibits, retired for lunch in the shade, and then made a more cursory trip round the rest -- 3 o'clock on the hottest day of the year is not the best time to be doing this. But we ended up lying in hammocks in the shade of pine trees, listening to an oud player. I took quite a few photos of the art, but my favourite photo ended up being of something that was not officially part of the exhibition (see extra). I also bought a small artwork made of handmade paper.

When we got back to the car, parked in full sun, the thermometer was showing 45C. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Back home, many cool drinks were taken. Then S went off to try to finish some work before he leaves tomorrow, and I went to join the neighbours at the temporary bar in the chateau. At about 8:30 someone mentioned that some football match was happening. In a brilliant display of improvisation, one person supplied the computer, another the large-screen TV, a third the cable to link them, G provided his wifi signal, and chairs were quickly lined up. The bar had run out of food, so C nobly took orders for pizzas and drove to Lézignan to fetch them. Spectators included a group of teenage scouts who told us they'd been sent on a mission to meet the natives. Mission accomplished!

I didn't actually watch the match at all -- we non-footy types retreated to the street and chatted until well after the final whistle, relying on noise levels to tell us if there were any goals. A great evening, although some people will have sore heads in the morning.