You may think Agen is the centre for
prunes – and of course it is – but
once a year the village
of Saint-Aubin, near
Monflanquin,
takes the stage
with its Foire
aux Pruneaux.
Among the many
stalls selling
prunes, prune
conserves, prunes
confites, prunes in Armagnac,
chocolated-coated prunes, prune jams
and other imaginative applications of
the fruit, the prune is celebrated in style
with the villagers electing a King
Prune.
This year, Le Club Eymetois de Cricket celebrates its
25th anniversary. One of the first cricket clubs to
officially exist in the French provinces, Eymet Cricket
Club was founded in 1983 by a group of ‘expats’ who were
seriously missing their favourite sport.
For the first season, matches were played on coconut
matting laid on the town’s football pitch, but the following
year the Mayor kindly offered use of the present ground at
Eymet – complete with stand and all facilities necessary for
running a sports club.
Châtelaillon opened the 15th ‘Sites en Scènes’ summer
festival with ‘Sur la Route des Indes’. Fourteen towns
of cultural interest in Charente-Maritime choose a form
of entertainment on a theme. This year there is, among others,
jazz at Le Château d’Oléron, dancers and musicians both
French and Québécois for the anniversary of Champlain’s
discovery in Brouage, and Frankenstein in rock opera with
special affects in the arena of the Roman amphitheatre
in Saintes.
This year Châtelaillon surpassed itself. Sunlight filtered
through thousands of flowered garlands. The town centre was
laid out as a market in an Indian town. The mairie was
swathed in golden drapes and Indian music was piped the
length of the street. At one end stood the Taj Mahal.
Elephants and beautifully decorated marquees lined the road,
and saddhus sat contemplating Nirvana. Residents wandered
through the throng – as thick as in a real Indian market – in
their saris and Nehru-style costumes. Dancers, musicians
and fakirs joined the crowd. The air hung with the scent
of incense.
Bringing Roman ruins to life is
never an easy task, especially
when they are often just vague
contours of stone and brick. These
treasures may mean a lot to
archaeologists, but not much to visitors.
Aerial photography first revealed
tell tale lines around the Moulin du Fâ
in 1975. Until then, nobody had
imagined the vastness of this Roman
site. Today, university teams from La
Rochelle and Bordeaux are referring to
it as an ancient city nearly as big as
Roman Saintes or Poitiers, covering at
least 100 hectares.
Perched on a hill overlooking the
Gironde, two km south of Talmont and
buried under agricultural land,
successive digs have now revealed
remnants of the temple, baths, theatre
and marketplace. The discovery of vast
storage areas and horrea (storage jars)
point to this being the busy port of
Novioregum, an essential link between
Mediterranean and northern trade in the
first to third centuries AD. Where
exactly, no one is sure.
Until recently, the cancer charity Symphonie 17 was
exclusively French. However, the La Rochelle-based
charity has now come to Caunay (Deux-Sèvres), just
outside Sauzé-Vaussais. Symphonie 17 seeks to raise
money for research into breast and other cancers of the
female reproductive system. The charity offers invaluable
support and help to sufferers and their families.
At last – a
proper art
gallery in Civray.
Not that the
municipality
doesn’t do local
artists pretty well.
If you belong to
an association, you
can mount an
exhibition in the
spacious room
above the tourist
office; if you get
an OK from the
town’s Culture
Service you can
show work in the
municipal library
or the room alongside the theatre.
And if you’re a recognised professional, you’ll soon have
at least a chance of your art being included in the collections
shown in the FRAC (Fonds régional d’art contemporain) in
nearby Linazay – in what used to be Caprilia, the failed goat
centre – once they finish the conversion.
Take a medieval ruined castle open to the sky, with rolling
fields of wheat stretching away on all sides. Perch it
above Villebois-la-Valette, a red-roofed village of huddled
streets with a wood-beamed market at its heart. Bring
together a man with a passion for restoring old buildings
and another with reviving French song... wait for nightfall,
and you have a magic recipe for a new festival.
Further to recent articles in French News about women's pensions, the UK Department of Work and Pensions has issued a press release explaining that "women pensioners could boost their state pension or even be in line for a windfall payment under special terms.
Explore France
