Beautiful venues

Chateau Coudray Montpensier - Seuilly

Last Sunday afternoon we were back in Seuilly. In fact we spent pretty much the whole of last weekend in Seuilly but  for different reasons and in different places. Saturday night was a triple decker birthday party for three American friends who all live in the village. First of all Moira - she and I cooked a vegetarian lunch together for one of our Anglo-French groups in Chinon. We've been over to her place for several superb BBQ's cooked by husband Chris. The other two birthdays belong to Steve and Tim, who are friends of Moira and Chris. We've met the boys at the BBQs several times. However the birthday party was held at Steve and Tim's place, which was also a bon voyage party for Moira and Chris who are returning to the States with their family for a while. All of them have bought large places in Seuilly.  Steve and Tim are here full time, whereas Moira and Chris with their brood of three teenagers, have spent one full year here getting established and working on their house. From now on they can only spend a maximum of six months here because of work, schools and the dog. The half and half life we know well. In our case we were travelling - just the two of us - from the other side of the channel. Easy stuff. Moira and Chris and family (including the dog who is a lovely black labrador), are travelling from the States. Hopefully this isn't going to prove exhausting. They love it in France.

Steve and Tim run a fabulous business - Loire Culinary Tours and Events. If you have a look at their site, you'll understand why a dinner party for seventy people, although no mean feat, was brilliantly staged. Tables were laid up outside in their garden with a magnificent view all round, in gorgeous early evening sunlight. Later, as the light started to fade, table lamps were lit. Lovely atmosphere with a mixture of French, Americans, Germans and just four British - Mike and I, and Lindsey and Bill, who like us have emmersed themselves in the French language and culture. It was the first time we met. Had a lot of fun with them (and the others on our table) so decided to meet for supper together at the end of next week. Steve, Chris, Tim and Moira really spoilt us all. Lots of work and preparation for them, but they could see how much we were all enjoying ourselves and what a great night we had together.

Sunday afternoon was a totally different affair - the final concert of the Seuilly Early French Music festival. We'd been to another in the series on Thursday evening with our friends who were visiting, Lesley and John. The musicians playing on Sunday were the same quartet we'd heard on Thursday. So we were really looking forward to it all, as we knew how good they were. The venue this time was the Chateau Coudray Montpensier, which is a privately owned chateau and well known around the local region. In fact we'd been able to see it very clearly from Steve and Tim's garden the night before. 

We were meeting a friend of ours at the chateau for a tour round the gardens prior to the concert, which was included in the ticket. The gardens and the chateau are being overhauled at the moment, but it's being done steadily and very carefully, so there was no disruption.  The concert was again fabulous but this time the musicians were joined by a young soprano. Just twenty-one she had a stunning voice, and effortlessly handled the technically complicated scoring. The structure of early music I find fascinating. All the instruments create a very delicate sound, but the scoring of intricate harmonies provide a full-bodied sound with great depth and quality of tone. We bumped into other music fans while we were there, who we've seen from time to time at different concerts round about. We had a  very interesting conversation with one particular couple who programme the season and artists for Les Musiques et Le Patrimoine, which we've recently started going to. They've now stopped for the summer and restart in September. We ended up discussing the complexities of programming this type of music, attracting audiences, funding, the politics etc. All of which we understand very well because of our careers in the arts in the UK and through contact with the Arts Council. There might be an expanse of water between our two countries, but the pros and cons are exactly the same.