Concert In Dio, France

Yesterday afternoon, as is customary in this neighborhood, we were introduced to the mayor of the community.

The community consists of 3 hamlets a couple of miles away from each other. Mr. Mayor says it can be a challenge seeing to the needs of all three.

We are pictured with the Mayor of Dio-et-Valquieres in front of an aerial image of the terrain under his care.

In the evening he came to our concert in what I would call the Dio community center building. They just call it the gite.

Our show was advertised to start at 8:30 and we were told by the organizers that most folks wouldn't come until that time. In all three of these hamlets combined there are only a few hundred people, so we had no idea what kind of turn out to expect. We thought maybe 12 to 20 people. The room was set up with seating for about 25.

By the time we started at about 8:40 we had 29 people and were feeling really good. Our new friends Lynette and Paulette and some others had prepared wonderful food and drink for all, and these ladies really know how to bake.







There were tarts and cookies of every wonderful kind. Anne had even made her first pumpkin tart in honor of our upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. She used homegrown pumpkin from her own garden. What a treat!



Some in the audience spoke English. No one on stage spoke French, but the language barrier was not a real problem. They were enthusiastically responsive to the point that we could really feel the positive energy flowing between us. They knew a few of the covers that we had chosen and sometimes sang along. They loved the original songs, too.





Eric, a harmonica (French harp?) player from the nearby town of Bedarieux asked if he could sit it. He made a nice contribution and the crowd loved having a local guy play with us.










By the time we started our third set there were at least 40 people in the room, standing room only! During the previous break you could hardly move around the room at all it was so full, and folks did there best (and failed) to eat all the great goodies the ladies had made. Meanwhile, our new friend Denis made sure our glasses were full of the fabulous homemade sangria or another of his favorite beverages.

At the end of the show we had made about40 new friends and all said they hoped we would come back again and some of them will be looking for venues for us to play on our next trip. Talk about feeling welcome! The mayor finished off the evening with a little speech about how much he enjoyed the music and how happy he was with the turn-out, also saying that he hoped there could be more such events and that he hoped we would return to play again.

We went away with the biggest smiles of all.

We Find a Bass

Yesterday we drove (with Deb navigating) to the town of Pezenas. Deb had done some telephoning for us and found that a shop there, the Autour d'une Guitare, would rent us a bass to use for a few days.

Yes, that's Max making coffee. Notice the rocks sticking out of the wall. Our digs are literally that. Dug right into the side of the mountain.


Pezenas is a bustling little town with lot's of artsy shops, antique shops, and an ancient neighborhood with super narrow streets and an historic Jewish ghetto.


We found the guitar shop right away and they were expecting us. They have a pretty fair selection of instruments, mostly acoustic guitars including a few Martins, and run a repair and customization shop, too. The owner/luthier, Luigi Notarangelo, is very nice, speaks pretty good English, and does beautiful work. Ruth played one of his guitars, a sappelle dreadnought, and pronounced it very nice. We made arrangements to rent the bass and to pick it up after the lunch hour during which EVERYONE except restaurants close for two hours. (Notice the deserted street. Eveyone really goes home for lunch here.) This gave us time to eat a very nice lunch in a place recommended by Luigi and stroll around town.

We had told Luigi that Ruth plays a Martin D35, so after lunch we brought it with us when we went to pick up the bass. Luigi was impressed with the D35. He strummed a few chords with both pick and fingers, seemed to be checking out its bass response, and pronounced, "It's like church!" Then he asked if his assistant could try it. When he tried it the assistant immediately got an amazed look on his face and all he could say was, "Whew!" He's and excellent player, too. After that we packed up the bass and headed out of town.

We drove via some narrow and twisting roads, some running right through the beautiful vineyards of the area, to the village of Puissone where we hoped to meet another luthier and bluegrass fan, one Claude Fouquet. We found his studio and though his wife had invited us there was no one there. Right behind his shop we found a very old amphitheater, just the kind of place we wish we could play. Maybe next time!

Finally, we headed back to Dio with the bass looking forward to some playing and getting accustomed to the new rented instrument. It's made by one Antoine Jean-Baptiste Leducq jst two years ago. It's very lightweight. The flat back is plywood. The sides and top are solid.

Trip to Carcassonne

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, we got into our rented Citroen, set the GPS, and headed out for Carcassonne, home of the famed walled medieval city.






A major highway on the preferred GPS route was “Baree” closed do to construction so the GPS took us on a twisting route through one little French village after another with multi-colored autumn vineyards in between. Each one had an aisle of golden leaved plain trees either as we entered or departed.

















Once we finally got to Carcassonne, (It took about 90 minutes to get there.) the GPS seemed to be a bit confused possibly because we entered the city from a less than optimum direction due to our construction mandated “Deviation’”. Many of the streets of Carcassonne are no different from the streets in the tiniest of French villages- narrow, twisting, and frequently one-way. The GPS often tried to get us to turn where there was no street to turn onto or turn the wrong way on a (newly reversed?) one-way street. We finally parked a several blocks from “Le Cite’” and walked up the hill toward the turrets and towers that obviously marked its location. (There was supposed to be parking right across the street but we never found it.)

Le Cite’ has been restored with the dual purpose of preserving a grand piece of history and attracting tourists. The tourists were few and far between on this cold, cloudy, windy day. Beyond the moat and inside the walls is a little city unto itself with hotels, restaurants, bars, and every kind of gift shop imaginable. Most of the restaurants were closed as the lunch period was about over when we arrived and many of the shops were closed as well due to the fact that it was an off-season week day.













The highlight of the city for us was the ancient and beautiful St. Nasaire Cathedral. It’s a true medieval cathedral with buttresses and gargoyles and wonderful stained glass, and they still hold services there.













Cold and weary, we set the GPS for “home” and were taken again on a twisting route through tiny French villages. But on the way back they were mostly different ones from those we saw on the way to Carcassonne. Good thing we were sightseeing!

Another Beautiful Day In France

After a week, today was laundry day. Afterward we took a walk with our hostess, Deb, down the road toward the neighboring village, Valquieres, to visit our new friends Denis and Paulette. Paulette is helping to organize our concert.








Denis is a marvelous gardener/landscaper with a peculiar talent with cactus and other succulents. He's a real nice guy, too. He took us for a tour of his garden though he's starting to prepare for cooler weather.



Dennis grows fruits and vegetables, too, and we sampled some little orange fruits that reminded us of a cross between a strawberry and a peach.








Dennis and Paulette also raise animals and take in strays, etc. including a dog and cat, a horse, three pregnant goats, and three friendly donkeys.
We'll post more a bit later in the week.

Ruth & Max Go to France

We arrived in Marsielle on Nov. 10 in the afternoon after a long flight from Detroit to Amsterdam and a short hop. We then boarded a shuttle bus (navette) to the train station (Gare St. Charles) and took a train to Montpellier. Our friends met us there, helped us pick up our rental car (Citroen Picasso 5-speed) and very kindly drove us to their home in a little village in the countryside.


The bureau of Languedoc is beautiful. We are in an area of big hills (small mountains) with vineyards, cattle, sheep, and horse farms. The weather started out cloudy and cool and then turned sunny, breezy, and still sort of cool. Today we walked up the curvy road up the mountain behind our digs to visit the famous windfarm here and check out the view of the local hills and villages. What an enjoyable day! We've visited several of the local towns and villages and plan more country style sight seeing.

We have a concert scheduled for Thursday in the local community center. There are posters all over the village. It's being organized by a couple of our friends' neighbors who heard Ruth sing when our friends invited them over to meet us last Tuesday. We'll post pictures and a report in a subsequent post.