Saturday, December 20, 2008

chants de marin - second birthday

Thursday night was the 2nd anniversary of the Chants de Marin session we go to every month. The venue changes, with every second month at a different place or boat, and the months in between in a bar - les Mouettes - in the Port de Legué at St Brieuc, which is where it was on thursday...
Here are Etienne Miossec and Etienne Delahousse, two thirds of the group Fortunes de Mer who organise the sessions Hervé Guillimer (below) is well known in Brittany as a songwriter and performer, pictured here with Hélène, his partner, who comes from Quebec.
Hélène is obviously singing a proposition to Fanche le Marrec from Morlaix.Hervé on the whistle...
These next pictures are of Edwige Demory and Pierre-Jean Salaün who are two thirds of De Ouip en Ouap. Note the fantastic trompe l'oeil painted on the wall behind them and the birthday candles on chunks of chocolate cake that were doing the rounds all evening. Odile is Etienne Miossec's other half, and she usually takes the photos that appear on the Fortunes de Mer website. Below her is Françoise Delahousse, who is Etienne's wife (see above). Françoise usually sings songs in Breton, and is much in demand. This is Magalie, who runs a dance group in St Brieuc and who has a great voice when she is brave enough to sing in public (which is not often enough) Last, but not least, these pictures are of les 'Oufs' a band from Pontrieux, where the January session will be held, at their local bar. There are more than three of them, in fact there are loads of them, but they were scattered about the room - it was standing room only...
Definitely a good night out, and I was just a bit hoarse and groggy the next morning when I got to work. If anyone is interested in coming along, the sessions are the third tuesday of the month - just send me a message and I will ask Etienne to put you on the mailing list....

Monday, December 15, 2008

our cat eats bones!

Having had her for a few weeks we have eventually discovered that Gertie is completely deaf. Apparently white cats with blue eyes have a 65 - 80% chance of being deaf and she is the only one in her litter with a blue eye (the other is green). Her mother and siblings have green eyes. Still, she is happy enough, and we will just have to warn the neighbours to watch out for her on the road outside the house.
Gertie eats everything she can get her teeth round!

And attacks everything including the broom and all the other cats. She's not frightened by the vacuum cleaner either - can't hear it!