La Fête de la Musique

In France midsummer is celebrated as a festival of music and there are events in villages and towns large and small all over the country. This one at Mas Rolland must be in one of the smallest villages - it's just a hamlet really - but it was very well attended.

The goat farm where we buy cheese is in the village so we bought some of that first. It's the best goats' cheese I've ever tasted and I think this is because the goats graze out in the garrigue, the mix of aromatic plants which covers the hills in the Mediterranean region.

The music started with a group of four men who sang Occitan songs a capella (and nearly became my blip) and then we listened to jazz as the sun went down over the old houses. There must have been a couple of hundred people there, in a village with a population of much less than a hundred. The saxophonist second from the left here is the goat farmer and he practises while out in the hills with his goats.

It was a good way to celebrate a sort of unofficial anniversary for me and Lo Jardinièr, as we've been together for 38 years today....and it seems to be going OK so far!