Subjects

Vernissage of a photo exhibition at our local salon de thé this evening. Photographer David Samblanet had taken photos of local people in places that had something to do with their family history. Aude and Florence entered into the spirit of it by dressing up like their great-grandparents.

This was one of the opening events of the astonishing Festival Son Miré. Astonishing in that it is now a three-day extravaganza of weird and obscure events, all free, that has now been running for 13 years. See last year's. 

This year the bishop had sadly refused the use of the chapel, so the events were in the village. Before the vernissage, Ingrid and I had experienced a telling of two stories, The Little Matchgirl and a version of Little Red Riding Hood, accompanied respectively by extracts from an avant-garde opera and live accordion, while strange images combining photos, classical art, and scribbly animation were projected onto a screen. Afterwards we listened to half an hour of a tuba player improvising. He was much better than last year's unforgettable saxophonist. This was followed by a "light and sound composition" which was basically ambient music and projected images of concentric circles changing colour. Five minutes of this would have been OK, but 20 were a bit much. It was followed by a second projection simulating a rainstorm ("Enfin !" said someone in the audience), which was both much better and much shorter. We decided to give the play about "Burn-out" and the silent film about Berlin a miss -- we'd had enough excitement for one evening.