Grey on grey

The Blip Assistant has spoken, and he chose this over a wet flower blip -- can't say I blame him :) Best viewed large.

We certainly can't complain about the weather here, given what people in the UK are going through. It was overcast and damp, but due to the wind being Grec (from the east) it was still quite warm. In the morning S continued the Titanic task of digging the garden. I occupied the time fruitfully researching our trip to Madrid in May. This was S's idea, and I wasn't initially that keen, but now I've done some investigation I am quite excited, especially as I have found a lovely apartment to rent for the week. In all the years we've been visiting Spain, we have never been to Madrid, so it's high time we put that right.

Yesterday evening, after I'd blipped our lunch, we went to see Du Bartas at the theatre in Narbonne -- something we'd booked a couple of weeks ago and then almost forgot about. I was astonished at the number of people there; the main theatre can accommodate 900 people, and it was almost full, with an age range literally from five to 85, and everything between.

I'm sure chaiselongue has heard of (and probably heard) Du Bartas; they are icons of Occitan culture. There's a fun sample of their music here (in Occitan with French subtitles). The group was formed by Laurent Cavalié, who has spent years collecting almost forgotten popular songs from elderly people through the region, by visiting and getting them to sing to him; he then transcribes and arranges them. But he composes too, including the anti-junk food manifesto -- highly topical at the moment -- Plantarem de Pasteca (Let's plant melons). This video from early in his collecting project gives a flavour of the man -- I love to hear him perform. The first time we ever encountered him was in the pine wood surrounding Notre Dame de la Consolation, before a concert, when he suddenly emerged from the chapel playing Occitan blues on his accordeon and drew everyone Pied-Piper like after him.