Our friends drove us out the buy some wine at a small shop located in a gorgeous slice of Provence. We tasted from several bottles and purchased a few more, including a bottle of Histoire d’Obuns En 1958 – the year my Linda was born. A good year, indeed.
Les Négresses Vertes – Volia l’ete (Summer)
Heard this song playing outside at a wine tasting today, and it reminded me of a truly great band from the late ’80s – Les Négresses Vertes.
If The Waterboys had been born French, they would have sounded like these guys. Lead singer Helno Rota, who died of a heroin overdose at the age of 29, in 1993, was the real deal – a great singer, performer, and hell-raiser.
This song is from the band’s classic from 1988 Mlah
Serf Volant (Kite) from the award-winning film Les Choristes (2004)
We had a fun day at the Festival d’ Avignon yesterday. There’s a wide range of theater productions happening throughout each day. You’d need a week in Avignon to see them all.
You wouldn’t seek out Avignon primarily for their museums, as you might in Paris. But there are great shops and boutiques, bars and restaurants everywhere, and a cool youthful vibe in the city.
As we were walking through the streets of the walled city, a young women who looked like Audrey Hepburn circa Roman Holiday, approached us riding on the back of a classic red motor scooter. Turns out, she was promoting her evening performance as – Audrey Hepburn! Pausing on her scooter, she sang a tune from My Fair Lady sounding much like Marni Nixon, and then off she went. Later, I snapped a photo of this poster hanging in a shop window.
The majority of the shows were serious drama and as you’d expect, performed in French, so we didn’t buy tickets to any of the featured events, but saw dozens of street performances.
We had a tasty lunch and ice cream cones by the Palace of the Popes, the fourteenth-century Gothic palace built by the popes who made Avignon their home.
Here’s a group of young gals singing a bit of “Hit the Road, Jack” – a favorite song of Pope Innocent VI way back in 1352, hundreds of years before Ray Charles would record the song in 1960, proving the pope’s miraculous powers. Or something like that.
Monday evening, we drove an hour north to the ancient theater of Orange for the Chorégies d’Orange music festival. The Roman-style outdoor theater was built during the reign of Augustus in the 1st century. It was restored for the purpose of presenting opera performances back to 1869.
Last night’s show featured the renowned Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra – considered the finest in France. I’m not a huge fan of opera, nor Wagner in particular (who composed most of the pieces that were performed.) Like my friend Jim who sat with me at the concert, I prefer my Wagner performed by Elmer Fudd.
A highlight for me though, was when Terfel closed the evening with a Welsh traditional song that I’ve always loved. I may be one of a very few humans who own Bryn Terfel’s recording of Welsh folk songs, We’ll Keep a Welcome. I’ve probably listened to this CD more than any other recording in a language that I can’t understand. I love it, and Bryn clearly loves his native land enough to close the program with a song from Wales.
Sitting in the theater itself is certainly worth the price of admission – even withouth world-class orchestras and vocalists. Though last year’s concert was more memorable, I can’t think of another place I would have rather have been than at the Chorégies d’Orange.
Some pictures from the event with myself, Linda, Jim and Shirley
The picnic was a technical achievement as well, as we ate the lunch portion near the base of the Eiffel, and the leftovers for dinner at a small park near Pont Neuf.
Pas De Merde 