Day out - of the ordinary

I had to go to Lodeve today to collect some cork tiles for the little house we're renovating, and I didn't want to go on my own so my friend Ray came with me. Ray tells lots of stories, and after spending a day with him I can see he's the kind of guy for whom and around whom things happen. So at the tile warehouse, we got chatting to the seller who gave us a coffee, and talked about sculpture. Ray says he knows a sculptor in iron who made a dinosaur. 'Oh,we've got one of those' says the seller and takes us to a corner of the yard where there is indeed a very lifelike dinosaur about 12 feet tall. He opens two doors in its belly and there lies a barbecue - the neck and head are the chimney. It was made by a local artist, who used local flat pebbles - galets - for the scales (see it in large).

A little later we were walking down a street in the town and spot a bric-a-brac shop. We both want to go in and as we talk to the owner it turns out she's Brazilian, and we start talking about Brazilian music, Chico Buarque, Hermeto Pascoal, Raul Seixas....She puts on a Buarque record and invites us to a film show in her shop, with friends of hers, next week. We swap email addresses. ( Seixas is not much known outside Brazil - try an old video here).

Later again we're having lunch in a cafe, Ray starts talking to someone at the bar and before I know it we've been given a plump recently deceased pigeon in a plastic bag, which Ray takes home for supper. He's a jazz singer (Ray, not the pigeon) and I think he's got himself a gig there. Thanks, Fabrice.

And thanks for the day out, Ray.