But is it art?

To our annual must-see L'Art Caché in Albas today (after voting of course). They were not well-served by the weather -- yesterday was largely a wash-out due to rain (many of the exhibits of this annual art festival are in people's gardens), and some reorganisation had to be done. Today was sunny and windy; we ( S, Ingrid and I, G felled by a not-Covid fever) got there quite early to find only three other cars in the car park.

This open-air art exhibition is such a pleasure. There are some regulars, but they always find new artists too. I try not to take too many photos of the art, so this is a photo of the cave in which Ledoeufre was showing his delightful maritime-themed works on driftwood and canvas (extra 1). "I'm not really interested in the sea", he confessed, "but I live in La Rochelle and I liked the constraint of a different view of sailors." See extra 1. I liked his work a lot, but financially it was a bit beyond our means.

Other favourites: Emmanuelle Jamme's domestic scenes; I loved the fact  that she'd included her daily sketchbooks that we could flick through. Elli Ranché's (no website, but she's on Instagram) angel-winged figures (we couldn't afford original artworks, but S bought some small prints). And I was totally seduced by Christine Drouillard's abstracts created by taking photos of boat hulls below the waterline. Reader, I bought a trio of her small square prints (will be blipped later), and Ingrid bought one too. Finally, Françoise Langlois's paper sculptures, an amazing self-taught artist who lives not far from us (extra 3).

We had an early lunch there in the sunshine, beating the queues, and afterwards bumped into S and T, and F and B, who had just arrived. A very enjoyable day out.

Back home, siesta, and then we nervously switched on the TV to look at the exit poll. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing at first. RN pushed into third place?? So unexpected. Bring on the expensive cava! We gloatingly glugged the bottle along with bacon sandwiches. We still have three RN députés in our département, but you can't expect miracles. This will do, though heaven knows what will happen next. I was heard to yell "François Hollande for prime minister!" despite never being a fan before ...