Vernissage at Tourrreilles

 The Toques et Clochers annual art event opened last night under an alarmingly overcast sky - Bob drove Kat, Alecia and me to check out the prize winners (no one we knew) and then reconnoiter the gaff for the main event. Here is the view on leaving the village and below, a not unusual snap of the TyRex in full swing later... :) 

Scant blogging

- Been busy :)

John, Bobs brother, is here with his son Richard and we lost no time in setting them to work.

Glorious night with Max and Andrea and Dick on Wednesday and a slightly quieter one last night at home, seen here grouped with Kat around a perfectly poached salmon and an interesting strawberry tart - that's my cooking skills exhausted for the week.



Today the tribe have gone off sight-seeing to Carcassonne and as we took them to the bus stop we stopped at the plant stall outside the school, where a lot of friends were assembled in the course of stocking their gardens. Behold! JILL out and about!! and below, satisfied customers trotting off

its hotting up here

 Max is the first in for the Toques et Clocher which starts next weekend. Caught him looking surprised in the market; surprised to be up, probably, after an exhausting night in Ty Rex .




Hes here with Holli who works with him in Winnipeg. Shes arrived via Inverness and Glasgow and is only here briefly - snapped her (below) with Fabienne - and while I was at it snapped Roger sitting drawing the market.

We hourly expect Leo and Toby, Annie and Pete, the Scottish Daves -

The weather is beautiful. Let it roll:)

hanging

Voila! Ryan and Alecia doing all the work at the Casino, Alet-les-Bains, where I'm exhibiting. Vernissage 26th April - keep that  date - invitation follows

Mondays

Mondays is drawing but had to leave, coughing. Energy back though so cleaning, ironing and generally getting on top of chaos when John M. turned up to disturb the domestic flow, bless him. He bought this divine gift from Spain, an esoteric object of great potency, probably.

Now preparing to hang my next exhibition. All details to follow :)

Out with the old, on with the new

 

Already confused by the hour changing and the remains of my toxic virus l nevertheless determined to do the civic thang and see the new mayor in. Never seen it done in France. Was fondly remembering the mayoring in London where Bob and I became an item, which was a lot more fun:) - here there was speechifying.

Then there was voting. Its all alarmingly open. The entire team votes for their choice of leader, in a booth, one by one. The results are opened and read, one by one. Little OOhs of surprise as Georges was elected by all except four votes who named Bernard, see below.

Now, be aware that the elected team also consists of Jean Torrent, retired mayor, Francine his adjunte, Jean Fournier, town scholar and good egg, and Phillippe Rivano, head of the third liste. So this accounts for the four rogue votes - fair 'nuff.

Now you should also be aware that the same Bernard was elected six years ago on the ex-mayors' Jean Torrent's team as his adjunct.

He quit in the Torrent administrations early days, left town and has returned to re-run with George. So the people he junked have named him as prefered to George! Quite elegant, I thought.


More voting later for the adjunct. Again into the booth, the envelope, the box, the count. All for Bernard but the four, three tokenistic and one spoilt. Maybe this aint so dull after all...

The bloke from the Council General gave out the sashes and George addressed us.

He thanked everyone - everyone - but the outgoing mayor. Then he said that he had to get to work straightaway, there was lots to do - he wouldn't leave it until the start of the next election. Yes, it was a dig.
We wait with interest to find how easy he finds it to get things done hereabouts:) He thanked his wife for moving here, leaving her country to be with him and rather bigging up the fact that he himself hasn't lived here for years. Lets hope he dosen't get the same sort of shock that we Brits get when first coming here, the snails pace of daily commerce. If you're lucky.

I missed the next event, alas - the commemoration of the war dead and the visit to General Lafites grave - since my coughing and wheezing were getting worse. Also missed the town photo and the apero afterwards which shows how ill I feel. Did suggest to Georges that it would be a Good Thing to name a space after Micheal Lafite and that the banks of the Aude behind his house and the war memorial were a perfect spot; he said he'd see.

Better late than never, perhaps

Was overtaken by toxic bug when getting this post sorted - must have been on Weds. Hope other citizens are clear of it, its pretty unpleasent though the worst is over in 24 hours. Afterwards its just a question of pulling youself together which is why I've been in bed for three days.



Here is a pressie from Max from his North Korean foray. We had a splendid T Rex evening and hes back quite soon having rushed off somewhere else amazingly foriegn.He is here for the Toques et Clochers, of course.

 Lets hope his travel diary gets published one day.


Off to the life drawing day now, if you're planning to come its at the Espace Louis Alibert by the footbridge.