La Fête de la Musique

Yesterday was not only the first day of summer but also la Fête de la Musique here in France. In 1982, the French Ministry of Culture established June 21st as a day to celebrate music. Free concerts are held in every city, town and village, usually in outdoor spaces. It's a pretty great idea, and one that has apparently spread to more than a hundred countries. According to the official Fête de la Musique website, free concerts were organized in Halifax, Moncton, Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto. (Come on, Vancouver!)

Back in June 1995, when I was just finishing up my stint as an au-pair near Paris, I went to see Edwin Collins (Some of you will remember his big hit at that time, "Never known a girl like you before...") It was hot and Laure & Sophie & I (along with zillions of others) packed the Place de la Bastille to see him perform. So fun! Less fun was after the concert, when we realized it was too late to get a train back to the suburbs and had to hitch-hike home... but that's a whole different story...

Here in Gap, la Fête de la Musique was pretty low-key. There were lots of different local groups playing in the squares and other little nooks and crannies and tons of young folks and families strolling the streets and sitting in the cafés. We wandered around for a couple hours and heard accordion tunes, a swing band (with lots of couples dancing), a local rock group, and some musicians playing music from the Andes... it seems that the pan pipe has international appeal! By far my favourite group of the night was "No Name", which, according to the local programme, promised to pay us pop anglaise. Sure enough, we were treated to a version of "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum (remember them??) Now I know it's hard to sing, especially in front of an audience, especially in a different language. Really, I don't think I could do it. But that doesn't change the fact that the lead singer's garbled version of the lyrics was totally and utterly incomprehensible and gave me a serious case of the giggles. I could have been listening to pop pig latin for all that mattered! Very amusing. François suggested that I wait until the end of the set, and then hand the singer my professeur d'anglais business card... I would never be that cruel, of course, but I won't deny the fact that a crash course in English pronunciation would really help matters.

In other news, it's hot. The first two weeks after we arrived in Gap, it rained (poured!!!) every single day. This was very discouraging for several reasons:

#1. Trying to visit apartments/drop off resumes in a city you don't know in the rain means huddling under an awning with a dripping umbrella in one hand and a soggy map in another. Fun? Not so much.
#2. I am in France, not Vancouver!
#3. In addition, everyone here assured me that I was going to be living in the south of France, where the weather is always nice. They promised me that Gap is famous for having 300 days of sunshine per year. Huh.

After two weeks of ominous clouds, full-on thunderstorms and constant drizzle, I was having a hard time believing them on point #3. But now it's summer, and, just as if somebody turned a giant switch to "on", it's hot. Very hot. It's 1 p.m. and it's 28 degrees. This afternoon we are going to find a shady forest to take a walk in.