France Day 8: A day of sightseeing and a spot of jazz

There were no plans for rehearsals today so David the conductor had arranged a coach trip to three towns in the area. The coach left at 9:30 and our first stop was Apt. Saturday is market day and the place was teeming with visitors and tourists. The market was based around two main areas but had tentacles spreading down the side streets.

The bell tower in one of the many side streets

I suppose the market stalls were as expected - food stalls covering all the produce from the region including honey, jams, meats and sausages, and herbs, clothing stalls selling hats, light summery gear and leather shoes, stalls with crafts and ceramics, and the stalls with traditional things from the east. I bought some lovely ceramic dishes with Provence style designs. One is long and thin, probably for olives, and the other is for garlic where rather than crush the garlic you rub it on a serated base. There were many musicians playing in the narrow streets and these two were spotted playing music from South America:

The harp had red and blue/black strings alongside clear strings very similar to mine but she played in a much more energetic way than me. It was great to listen to.

After getting back on the bus we headed to Bonnieux. This was a lovely village on the hillside. A small group of us climbed right to the top of the hill to a 12th century church. The views were again spectacular:

Looking down over Bonnieux

Despite getting lost we got back to the coach on time and via a quick stop at a Roman bridge Le pont Julien headed to the village of Roussillon, famous for it ochre hills which were quarried for a long time. The earth comes in many shades of red, yellow and orange and the quarrying has left behind some impressive landscapes:

The village also has many buildings in the colours found in the hills. There are some footpaths around the quarry, now a conservation area, and most of us walked around the track rewarding ourselves with ice creams before getting the bus.

Back at the hotel Sergio the bassist and I get together just before dinner to play a bit of jazz in the courtyard. We had busked together informally after one of the reheasals and someone had suggested we ought to play in front of everyone. I was a bit reluctant but was encouraged by Sergio who is a wonderful jazz bassist. He is somewhere in his retirement now and only took up reading music and classical bass a few years ago. He just about gets by in the Learning Orchestra but he is a different player when playing jazz. He even played with Chet Baker once in 1957 in Rome. I felt honoured to busk my way through Lady Be Good and I Got Rhythm with him. We got a round of applause from those that had gathered and were requested to play again tomorrow as a few people missed it. Photos will appear as soon as I get them off of one of the many papparazzi watching!

Dinner was suprisingly good. Meat was steak chunks and sausages from the barbecue with a melon starter and tiramasu for desert. We now have instructions for tomorrow and will be rehearsing from 9:30 to 10:30 finishing just before Mass starts. We should then all go to Mass to seek forgiveness for any mistakes that we might happen to make in the concert.

Dormez bien!