First French Festival...Fine French Food...

I'd been seeing posters around for the last few weeks advertising the 25th Jazz Festival of this area, held in Montlouis-sur-Loire (that's a Wiki link in French because the English version has about only one sentence about the village) and meant to be an International Jazz fest.  So me, a lover (and former player and singer...well in high school anyway) of jazz, was determined to go.  I managed to find a couple others interested in checking it out, in combination with a search for a rumoured nearby castle.

Once again, we ran into some trouble with the bus schedules working out well; they only returned to Tours up until 18h43 (there's some 24-hr clock for you) and the first concert wasn't scheduled to start until 16h30.  So, we really only had time to attend one concert.  And, well, it was pretty small...not many there.  And the town itself felt tiny and empty, although the festival wasn't in the downtown (presuming there is a downtown), so it's hard to know.  Definitely a different festival experience than the Montreal Jazz Festival, or even the Waterloo Jazz Festival.  There were later, not-free concerts, but we attended this first one, set in the "Village Gourmand" (which, by the way if you're into language, "gourmand" and "gourmandise" is used a lot here on menus, at festivals, etc and therefore isn't translated as "glutton" or "gluttony" like a standard bi-lingual dictionary may suggest and instead seems to imply something more like what anglophones mean when we say "gourmet" or "gastronomy" but not quite that fancy) where many types of foods were being served.  Mostly regional foods ie. "Tourangelle" food, food from the former province of Touraine (although there was a random booth of Portuguese food and another serving Tapas).

Here I am eating some Fouée, a type of bread cooked in a wood fire oven and then filled with various items of choice.  My friend chose Nutella and I chose Rillettes d'oie (oie being a word I coincidentally had just found in my dictionary this morning while trying to explain to my friend how Canada is overrun with geese and I wondered why foie gras or other uses for geese meat hasn't caught on).  So Rillettes are a regional food (check out the link for an explanation) and yes, I chose the goose meat version.  It was ok, but had some kind of fermented cabbage taste to it...I couldn't tell if it included cabbage or onions, but I decided it was like sauerkraut. I also tried out a Rosé Pamplemousse.  Nice.

The concert itself was decent.  The ensemble was Word Out and the lead guy (the pianist) was English but his French was fabulous and nous étions jalouses!  We particularly enjoyed the "grimaces" of the bassist and the fact that it was nearly impossible to capture a photo of the drummer with his eyes open.

We successfully figured out where to catch the regional bus to take us back to Tours and voilà...

It was like we were riding our own private limousine: the coach was completely empty for the entire 20 minute ride!  And the bus driver maneuvered some pretty tight, narrow French country roads too!  And all that for only 1 Euro!  For the entire day, including the city bus too because this weekend it's the European Heritage Days in France.  There are a bunch of things going on and transportation is almost free!  So tomorrow, we'll play tourist again and check out some of the free tours and such.

Yes, we did visit the castle today too.  But I'll save those photos and comments for another post.

More about books

I got a book in the mail!

And now I get to read it and blog about it! Never done a book review before, so it's a neat idea for me. The author is Andrew Peterson who I know first as a musician. In fact, I have a sticker in my room (stuck to a container of files) that says "Andrew Peterson is my friend" that he gave to me after a private concert I had the privilege of experiencing. I don't even remember what year it was, but it was before his album Love and Thunder came out because I remember him introducing the song "Tools" and talking about his grandpa. I had really only just been introduced to his music and these friends had heard wind that Andrew was playing in Grand Island, NY. A little vanload of us headed down for the show, only to encounter a two-hour delay at the Queenston/Lewiston border crossing! :( When we finally arrived to the venue, the place was empty and we discovered that the concert had started a couple hours before it was advertised as the start time! There had been some kind of promotional miscommunication. A whole second sitting of people came for the time that we were aiming to be there and Andrew and his crew were kind enough to put on a second show for them! And then our van pulled up.

I don't think there was anyone else left but Andrew, his crew (including Ben Shive and maybe one person closing up the venue. They were packing up and saw us pull in. Again, Andrew was willing to play us another concert and we all sat down on the grass and listened. A great song-writer, musician and story-teller, it was a memorable time!

I keep an eye out for other shows of his (or others of the Square Peg Alliance like Jill Phillips or Derek Webb) to come somewhere close, but it doesn't seem to happen! Not too much representing in the Great White North. I would love to see and hear the "Behold the Lamb of God" Christmas tour, but the closest one this year is still about 5 hours (somewhere in Michigan or one somewhere in Ohio)!

Anyway, considering the knack for story-telling that I observed in that memorable private concert of Andrew's and considering my renewed interest in fiction and even in kid's/teen's books (Harry Potter, Twilight, Lemony Snicket), I got a copy of the first book in the The Wingfeather Saga as soon as it came out and now I am looking forward to continuing the story!

I'm right in the midst of moving, settling into a new job (trying to learn the ropes around a Health store--supplements and all that jazz), wrapping up the summer (road trips to visit family) and preparing to go back to school BUT, I WILL get to reading this book. Expect my official review between Sept. 14 and 18 (which also happens to be my first week of school) to be part of the "North! Or Be Eaten" blog tour.

Breaking up the February blahs

So I hit up some shows yesterday. It had occurred to me recently that I used to attend concerts a lot (in my younger years!) and hadn't been to one in ages. I'd been looking into what's local and stumbled upon the second annual Hillside Inside festival held in Guelph. Despite not having anyone to go with (well, I could have tried harder to find someone, I guess), I bought a ticket Friday night and went Saturday afternoon. It was a good event. Great music. Just kinda chillin' like for most of the day, checking out the acts, wandering around. Laughing to myself at just how hippy Guelph is. It was nice to just take in live, good music. Even Guelph's local talent The Magic were a good listen.

It was nice how you could go at will to the floor level and so I did for two of the better/bigger shows: Bedouin Soundclash and Sam Roberts Band. Sweet. The BS show was kind of a flashback to my days of "rude boys" "skanking" at the shows. (Here's a photo of me in those days.) Yes, once upon a time I guess I would have fit in quite well with the hippy crowd, as you can see, but I kinda felt out of it yesterday. No matter though--totally dug the music. I was rather enthralled by the bass of Bedouin Soundclash. I played the bass at church this morning and well, I need to practice.

The Sam Roberts show was by far the best though. Best energy (although by then, I was getting quite tired from the day)--don't know how the drummer could endure. They played all of their songs that I really like and the musicianship, especially with their 5-10 minute instrumental ending of fabulous rockness, excellent! Somewhere in the midst of that show I noticed a girl I recognized from high school (there seems to be Collingwood people everywhere) and afterward talked with her and her brother--the first people I'd actually had a conversation with all evening! That was nice.

So yeah, live music stuff. My latest thing to bring cheer to the blahs.

Here is a video of That 1 Guy, who with his magic pipe only, plays quite the show. You gotta see it to get it. Actually, I did see him and I even went up after to look closer at the contraption and I still don't get it. But it was cool.