We have had a long hot dry spell here but we really could do with some rain.
Festival time has arrived again. Our local towns and villages are spattered with signs inviting us to a local village fête here and a festival there. We have been looking forward to the Souillac Jazz Festival again. For the past couple of years we have gone to the town on a Sunday morning to spend a couple of hours listening to bands playing outside some of the bars and restaurants.
This year we decided that we would join the Randonnée Jazz; a walk that we had seen advertised which takes place on the Sunday afternoon of Jazz festival week. We were told that the afternoon started with a picnic. This would be very civilised, we thought and together with our friends Sue and John we packed our sarnies and went to find the picnic site.
Expecting a nice shady village green, we were somewhat surprised to find ourselves in the middle of a Sunday market outside the village Mairie, in big marquee, along with dozens of others sitting at trestle tables eating our little packed lunches. Around us large parties of French people were tucking into bottles of wine, chips and a barbeque which had been organised by the local commune.
Never mind, we enjoyed our lunches which were supplemented by apricots and peaches bought from the market stalls.
We paid our subscriptions (that we hadn’t been forewarned about), collected our ‘free’ bottle of water and (whoopi-do!) badges and moved into an area of shade under a tree. By now the sun had been beating down for several hours and it was hot. Around 32 degrees.
The walk had been scheduled to start at 1.30pm but by the time the obligatory speeches had been completed (the French can never start anything without at least 3 speeches), the stragglers had been rounded up and forced to pay their subscriptions and collect their badges, it was around 2pm. So, quite a prompt start really, for a French ‘do’.
102 French people and ten mad English set off on the long walk, which we were pleased to discover was mostly in the shade alongside a small river.
As the path here was narrow, it made for one very long crocodile which ground to a halt occasionally if someone had decided to take a photo or when we all had to play ‘spot the cicada’ which was hanging under a branch of a scrub oak. I think everybody did spot it and so we were awarded a brownie point each.
The riverside path ended and we crossed a field in the full sun before being marshalled across the road by two men wearing reflective jackets who were there to hold up the traffic (what traffic?). The next path was fortunately back in the shade and wound its way up a long, long hill. There was a lot of puffing and panting, red faces and people began to pour their ‘free’ bottles of water over their heads in an effort to cool down a little. Finally we came to the top, there was a clearing and just one tree giving enough shade for all 112 of us to sit or stand.
An odd noise emanated from the undergrowth and our jazz band appeared.
Le mystère des éléphants; three chaps on saxophones of various sizes and one with a homemade drum contraption slung around his neck then proceeded to entertain us for our 15 minute break with their superb music and slightly warped sense of humour. You can visit their MySpace page here
They then insisted that we gather ourselves together and move on for the downward descent back into the village to their musical accompaniment.
It was an excellent afternoon, finished off with a cold drink back home in the shade and a very pleasant supper here with our friends in the evening.
Posted by rosievie 
