Looks like there’s something big happening in nearby Fontenay-le-Comte. As we drove through today to take Rosie to her French lessons, we noticed lots of flags (French, Spanish & EU), bunting, barriers and seating being erected. Checking out the Fontenay web site it seems to be a celebration of the town’s twinning with the Spanish town of Crevillent. It looks to be a pretty big affair with parades, dancing, fireworks, the elections of “Mister Fontenay”…(no, don’t even go there, I am NOT in the running!), and a parade of about “110 Spaniards”. I’m presuming these Spaniards will be adorned in their party gear, not just dragged off the streets!

My parents are coming to stay for a week from tomorrow, so it looks like good timing for a top weekend’s entertainment for them. I’ll be sure to take photos and show any decent ones here.

More top entertainment coming up is a visit to the church in Foussais of the Stevenage Male Voice choir. We saw this advertised in the local Chocolate shop (yes, we have a chocolate chop in our little village…strange but true. that is, a shop that sells chocolate, not one that is made off chocolate – that would be rather impractical given the temperatures that have suddenly arrived). Now we are a pretty musical family. All of us love singing – Lisa and I were both in various choirs and singing groups back in Grimsby, and we all play various instruments – so we though this would be a great opportunity to hear some great voices, whilst also mixing with the locals once again and doing our bit to support the community. I think the profits go towards sthe local church so its all in a good cause.

It was also interesting that it was the Stevenage choir who were visiting, as my sister lives not far away, so it is a place that we know quite well. So I decided to get in touch with the choir to find out why they chose to come to our neck of the woods.

I had a very nice reply from the conductor of the choir who seemed really chuffed that I had got in touch. Apparently an ex-choir member has moved out to a place near La Châtaigneraie (about 15 mins from us), hence the link to this area. After the concert in Foussais on 17th May, they then travel on to Chatelaillon-Plage, where they will perform a concert on the 21st May.

They are singing with a local choir called “Choraline”, so we are looking forward to hearing them too, as at some point we would love to get into a choir over here and start doing some singing again. We both really miss it. Needless to say, I’ll fill you in on how it went!