Bright sparks

We went to Bayssan just outside Béziers this evening to see Mourad Merzouki's dance show Folia. Although I'm not hugely enthusiastic about dance in general, I'm a massive fan of Merzouki since seeing the amazing Pixel in 2016. Folia is a fusion of baroque music, hip-hop, and ballet dancers featuring an excellent group of musicians and an operatic soprano. It wasn't as amazing as Pixel, but still visually and aurally stunning. Review here, and a teaser and photos here.

The show was at 8:30 and as it's an hour's drive away we decided to have dinner first in the on-site restaurant. You'd think sitting down at seven would be ample time to have a simple 3-course fixed menu in a not particularly crowded restaurant (maybe 30 people). But that would be reckoning without a bunch of incompetent staff who appeared to have no previous experience in a restaurant.

We obtained our starters after about 15 minutes by dint of S waving down a waitress who had been wandering helplessly round the restaurant for some time, offering two plates of food to every table except ours. Then there was a long period during which a few lucky people got the food they had ordered while others looked on enviously. A couple of times our waitress wandered past and said in surprise, "Oh, haven't you had your main course yet?" Our saying no had zero effect, although 10 minutes later she did come back and ask us if we were waiting for dessert. Our mains eventually arrived at 8:20, so we wolfed what we could down in about 3 minutes, and she placed our desserts on the table while we were still swallowing the last mouthfuls. Honestly, a theatre restaurant has one job -- get everyone fed before the curtain goes up. We won't be back!

We dashed into the theatre with two minutes to spare to find it packed to the rafters. We couldn't see a space anywhere. But a member of staff came up to us, said, "Two seats?" and ushered us like VIPs to the centre of the front row. Maybe the mayor hadn't turned up for his seat? So there can be an advantage to being last in. We forgot our indigestion and enjoyed the show.