En blanc et noir

There's a piano festival in Lagrasse this week. It involves leaving a Steinway in the open-sided market hall all week; all the concerts, by young up-and-coming musicians, are free. so this lunchtime I listened to 24-year old Samuel Bach playing Chopin preludes while house martins swooped around the beams. It's a lovely setting (see extra).

Back home this evening there was another free concert by local singer Lucile Blanc, which should also have been outside. However at precisely 9 pm, just as it was due to start, the rumble of thunder signalled the arrival of rain. Despite our insistence that it would be over within ten minutes, the musicians moved indoors, and once the sound guy had set up all the equipment there, the rain stopped. I liked her repertoire of lesser-known French songs, many from the twenties and thirties; it was a pity she had to sing them in the harsh light of a rather unatmospheric function room (second extra).