Boring street scene

Carcassonne on a Sunday lunchtime is not the liveliest of places. I had hoped the food festival taking place on Place Carnot would provide some photo opportunities, but it was not to be. The cookery demonstration by three local chefs, including Michelin-starred Franck Putelat, was a good idea poorly executed. The three chefs were in a tent, along with every photographer from the local press. So the only people who could see and hear what was going on were the dozen people in the front row. The rest of us got backs of heads and the occasional photographer's elbow. All three chefs worked simultaneously and were done and dusted in 15 minutes. Not very enlightening.

However the best part of the day was the choir concert, which went far better than we had any right to expect. The church in Salsigne was packed, and the organisers had to cram in an extra 50 chairs to seat everyone. After a disastrous warm-up during which our director got very exasperated, we concentrated and made very few mistakes, even in the tricky bits. It was very satisfying.