Culture in the country

This afternoon we went to a piano recital, part of the Piano en Valois festival, at a lovely little 12th century church in Linars, just west of Angoulême. The church was quite cold, as they are wont to be, but the recital, by a young Swiss  pianist, Francesco Piemontesi, was very enjoyable. At the end, there was much unison clapping (which we've only heard before in Leningrad/St. Petersburg) and Piemontesi was given what looked like a basket of food, rather than a bouquet of flowers as you'd expect in The Netherlands -- it is France after all. We couldn't see what the basket contained, but since Linars is fairly close to Trois-Palis, where the factory for the Chocolaterie Letuffe can be found, perhaps it was a basket of chocolates. 

We've noticed that concerts on Sunday are generally at 17.00, rather than at 20.30. We're not sure why this is, but it's quite nice for us Old Folks, because we can get  home, have a bite to eat, and get to bed at a decent hour, even when the location is an hour's drive away. 

We are very pleased and surprised by the number and quality of the events we're finding. We've seen John Mayall already, but didn't make it to any of the first part of Piano en Valois. Coming soon we have a concert of music from the middle ages at another church, Bach cantatas at the cathedral in Angoulême, and Chicago blues artists in nearby Montemboeuf.