Up early

Neat hedges and trim vines

The only time that is really comfortable to go for a walk at the moment is early in the morning. So today we were out by about 7.30am. It was perfect, with a gentle cooling breeze and  gorgeous light across the fields and the vines, although in the distance there was a bit of a haze. We were only walking for about forty minutes, because by then the heat was up, and the first mosquito had whizzed past my ear, on its way to bite someone no doubt. Luckily not me this time. In any case Thursday is market day, so we needed to get into Chinon at a reasonable time.

Very busy in the market today. Suddenly the holidaymakers have arrived. They are very much needed to boost the economy. Our friends Sue and Dave who rented a house in Cravant for a month and went back to the UK on Tuesday, were extremely generous in their support of local wine producers, as were Sue's two sisters and brothers in law.  Generally though, overseas visitor numbers seem to be right down. Usually the season begins in April through to October, but everywhere has been very very quiet and it's only now that the Brits and Americans have started to arrive. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks. Talking to a friend of ours in Bradford on Avon last night, it's the same there, with trade being very slow.

Meanwhile we've been taking advantage of the numerous events that are on during the summer months. Anyone who's experienced the Edinburgh Fringe Festival will known of the exhausted state of enjoyment it can engender, with the city offering twenty-four hour entertainment if you want it. Here it's not that frenetic, but you're pretty spoiled for choice.

We went to a fantastic concert at Saint Mexme on Tuesday as part of the Musiques et Patrimoine 2013 season. Featured Caroline Casadesus a soprano, although the range of the evening's programme demonstrated that she's a formidable mezzo. She was  accompanied by the superb Elena Filonova on piano. The two clearly enjoy working together and that enthusiasm was readily conveyed to the audience. We were treated to Schumann, Fauré, Schubert and Poulenc, with two encores of popular operatic pieces. Saint Mexme is one of our regular haunts and has featured in a number of blogs. We've seen jazz, rock, classical concerts there. It also from time to time hosts late night markets and open air film shows, so we always keep an eye on their programming.  

This evening we saw Ken Loach's film The Spirit of 45. I'm a great fan of his and always expect to be shaken and stirred. This time however for me this documentary felt rather an odd piece. It was an immense task to capture visually and in explanation what Britain was like in '45, the mood and aspirations, how things came about, the key players etc. It was extremely well put together with fascinating archive film and interviews with people who were heavily involved with the Union movement and employed within Britain's key industries at the time. The effects that the huge nationalisation plans of that era had on their lives and the national psyche was really very moving. In some ways The Spirit of 45 was also very depressing, and ended up feeling more like a memorial to socialism, than an source of much needed inspiration.