Gilded

We had fewer visitors today, but I felt that most of  today's visitors had come to appreciate the art, as opposed to seizing the opportunity to look around the chateau. Also, it was very hot which probably prompted most people to head for the beach. 

I had forgotten to take any photos in the church yesterday, so I rectified that today. This is one of Serge Boyer's works, with a shaman's coat from South America in the background; his installation also featured a horned Christ, a plumb-bob hanging over a stone sculpture,  and lots of Masonic symbols. I can't tell you what it all means; Serge gave a talk about sacred art in the church this afternoon, but a) it hurtled right over my head, and most other people's, and b) it was so stifling in there that I crept out after 20 minutes for fear of falling asleep after my late night.

While I was taking photos in the church earlier, S climbed up a spiral staircase into the loft. "Psst!" he hissed after a while. "Come and look at this." Treading carefully on the dodgy floor  among the rubble and rubbish, we found various bits of discarded statuary, including what we guessed (wrongly) was the figure of St Etienne/St Stephen (see extra -- I think Digpan is correct about it being Joan of Arc), and this stone head. It was dark up there and I only had the little RX100, but yet again it produced an effect I rather liked. I have added a few more photos to the Flickr album, but still have lots more I haven't processed.

In the early evening we provided food and drink on the square, and a musician friend of M's  with a guitar played and sang classic rock/pop songs from the 60s and 70s -- it was a good atmosphere. The 20 kg of chips, cooked by a genuine Belgian (see extra), sold out in no time; we could probably have sold double, but you never know. There was about the right amount of other food, and almost nothing left by the end of the evening; we also ran out of beer.

The weather stayed fine all weekend, although the evening was a bit windy. The amphitheatre filled up well for Un Peu, Beaucoup, Aveuglément, although sadly Clovis Cornillac himself (another member of Pamphyle's extended family) couldn't make it because he is filming in Bangkok. Instead he sent us an apologetic video message which was well received.  The film was as entertaining as I remembered, and made a great end to the weekend. Even the kids enjoyed it, and the small boy who yelled "Urgh, dégue !!!" ("Yuk!") as the camera zoomed in on the final snog got a big laugh from everyone. As we'd run out of alcohol, the pot d'amitié consisted of my ginger and lemon punch along with home-made cakes and focaccia. We did a quick bit of cleanup to minimise mess in the morning, and crawled off to bed at about 1 a.m.