Summer's evening by the Creuse

We spent a lovely evening in Barrou on Saturday at the "12e Festival des Barroudeurs".

The first act we saw was Baptiste Pizon, who sang one of my all time favourites - in English, of course!

The weather was perfect and the company, the best, but got a bit chilly later. That was what made us decide to leave and as we made our way to the road, the road came towards me rather more quickly than I'd anticipated. I went down like a stone; flat on my face.

In Susan's words:

"Your fall was fairly dramatic. The effect was enhanced I think because you were wearing very pale colours and it was nearly dark. You just went straight down"

Fortunately I was relatively unscathed. However my camera, which was in my bag, fared less well suffering a shattered lens and broken shutter.

Colin has ordered a new one. He'll just have to put up with the old one of  me, though!

Festival des Barroudeurs

Last year we very much enjoyed the 8th Festival des Barroudeurs, Barrou's music festival and promised ourselves that we'd go again this year.

However, we very nearly missed it! Like so many other events here, advertising was rather localised and didn't reach the wilds of Braye.

Had Colin not been looking back through our photos to find something else, he wouldn't have spotted the date was fast approaching. A quick chat with Jim and Pauline Craig and the evening was sorted!

And just like last year, WHAT a glorious evening! The setting down by the river was perfect; the crowd spanned every generation; the bands were first class; and they sang in English!

First up was Eole, a Blues-rock band comprised of father, mother, son and cousin....
They soon had the children up on the dance floor.

Changeover time gave the little ones a breather, whilst the man with the mic did his bit for electricity consumption..

It was cheers all round for the second band, The Roaders, as they played sixties rock - in English, of course!

The night drew in as they played.. over-running their time slot by half an hour but who cares??

The half hour over-run could in part have been due to the drum solo....which lasted nearly that long!!

Another change of set....

 and MAD took the stage..

With their Rhythm & Blues numbers echoing through the streets we made our way back to the car for the long drive home.

A superb evening; wouldn't you agree, Jim & Pauline and Tim & Pauline?