Hi Everybody! The end of July already, and we've just finished week 6 of our summer in France. Hope your summer is going well! We had another wonderful week--here are the highlights:

Music!

This week was full of music! We started Thursday night with a jazz concert, right here in town, about 2 blocks from our house. An English couple open their home to about 120 people (mostly English) once a month for what they call "La Nuit du Jazz". It's one of those houses that look like nothing on the outside from the street, but once you get in, you are so surprised! And the garden was the biggest surprise--terraced, with a lovely pool, and space enough to hold about 120 people very comfortably.

Friday night we spent at "La Famourette", our favorite "guinguette" (an outdoor restaurant with music, usually by a river), with another jazz group. But Saturday night was the best! This group was a trio called Anacrouse, and they played celtic music, Irish ballads, and Breton sailors' songs to the delight of an outdoor enthusiastic audience. The bit in the paper that led us to opt for this event described it so well: "At first, one listens properly, then one has ants in his legs, and can't stop dancing on the grass." It was one of those special summer nights we'll remember for a long time: the beautiful setting (in the church's garden), the rush of the water in the river behind us, and the incredible sounds this trio made with an accoustic guitar, an accordeon, spoons, flutes, oboe, and even bagpipe. They were so full of energy and life! I've included a very short video to give you all an idea, and one blurry picture as well in our album entitled "Week 6". We finished off our week of music Sunday night in a the tiny "Chappelle de St. Pierre de Broussan" (12th c) for medieval flute music. Medieval music in a medieval chapel--not bad! If you want to hear how it sounded, I loaded a very short (5 second) video here.

Golf!

Just in case you golfers want to see what French golf is all about, I've put a few pictures of our Friday morning visit to Lamalou-les-Bains' golf course, called "La Capitelle". Their motto is "Small is beautiful", and it is!The course runs along the Orb River, and is so very pretty. You can also see how Les practices here, downstairs in the garage with a net he ordered from England.

Food!

We always eat well here, and this week was no exception. Sunday, we drove down to our favorite little seaside town (Meze) for lunch. We love this little port restaurant, where they recognize us year after year. Very little changes here--always fresh sea food, excellent wine, and lovely waitresses. Check out our fish pictures! We had the "loup" and the "dorade".

Art!

We drove on to Sete, an island city on the Mediterranean with a good little art museum. This year in France is the year of Impressionism: all the museums seemed to be themed into this so French of styles. This exhibition is on loan by the Nahmed Brothers, Libyans who have a huge collection and share it often.

Also art related, we did a Saturday "ballade" (walk) through, what else, the vineyards, to a Romanesque tower in a little town nearby called "Puissalicon" which stands for hills (there are 7 of them there). The tower, pictured in our Week 6 album, dates from the early 12th century, but there are also vestiges of 2 Roman villas. It was the Romans who first realized that the climate here is perfect for wine-growing. Thank goodness for the Romans!

This Wednesday we head to Berlin (via Ryan Airlines) to explore the city with our niece Kerry and her boyfriend Moe. We will meet them at Humbolt University, where she is studying this summer. We have already booked tours with Context Travel for 2 art museums, and will do another one on our own. In preparation, we've watched 3 Cold War movies, and have another one dowloaded for tonight. Our stay in a "mini-loft" should be interesting!

We hope you are enjoying your summer too! It goes so quickly, doesn't it?

Love to all of you,

Elise & Les