Cool in Casablanca

Today was the hottest day of the year so far - 38° C when we were driving to Lodève - so I was glad that most of the events at the festival take place either on the banks of (or in) the river and in the courtyards hidden inside houses in the narrow streets. I'd hoped to hear the Palestinian Fatena Al Ghorra read her work but the time and day of her reading had been changed. However, she did turn up to listen to other poets so she was with us in the audience. We saw an exhibition of George Souche's nature photos, Òrts efemèrs / Jardins éphémères and marvelled at his catching of the light in the plants of this area. We ate sorbets - again - and then we went to the Cour Casablanca to hear some more poetry. What a sensible way to build houses in hot climates - this was the only place I felt cool all day. There's a fountain and cooling patterned tiles, an orange tree, a palm tree, and a table around which Libyan poet Abdouldaim Ukwas and French writer Claude Held talked about and read their writing, chaired by François Zabbal who was born in Beirut. Ukwas became quite upset at what he considered to be too many references to Gadhaffi and his dictatorship. That was an ugly time, he said, when poets had had to escape into their imaginations and hope they would not be censored. He looked forward to a time when no one asked him about that period. He explained that Libya was made up of four elements - countryside, city, sea and desert - and that he brought the first three together in his poems which come about when his physical self meets his imaginative self - too rarely, he laughed.

In the early evening we sat listening to live music from a young band of French chanson musicians while we ate tartines (toasted sourdough bread spread with tapenade and goats' cheese) under a Morocan tent and then we went into the garden behind to see a performance to mark the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence. Readings of work by Algerian poets who write in French were accompanied by the music of drum and santour. I was pleased at the end of the performance to hear Samira Negrouche's 'Le jazz des oliviers' which I translated into English for Poetry Wales.

The festival goes on until the weekend and there's an event we'd like to get to on Saturday night but we have so much else on this week that I think this may have to be our lot for this year. But there have been one or two suggestions about a blipmeet there next year which I think would be a wonderful idea!