Last weekend we residents of Chamberet had the Fete de la Cerise - The Cherry Festival. The weekend just gone we had the first Festival Africain - African Festival - and this coming weekend we have the Fete de la Musique - Music Festival, which promises a mass Zumba on the Champ de Foire.
The Champ de Foire is the large open space, with a large grassed area where the animals would have grazed or been tethered and markets would have taken place in the past. Every village around here (and probably lots of other rural areas of France) has a Champ de Foire. For Geordies who read this, and even adopted Geordies and even Mackems, who know Newcastle, the Champ de Foire in Newcastle is the old Cattle Market where there was a large car park, near the Arena(if that's still its name, but that may well now have gone).
From what I know, the Champ de Foire has also been the large area in a village which also accommodated the Fete Foraine - the Fun Fair, also known in Newcastle as The Hoppings or The Town Moor, and in Durham as The Shows. Often when there is a communal celebration in a village, such as the Cherry Festival, there will also be a Fete Foraine, with all the gaudy shows such as the Dodgems, candy floss stalls, Hook a duck, the Ghost Train and its many variants, and The Big Wave which involves participants being hoisted up-a-height, then plunged suddenly downwards, accompanied by lots of screams!
In Chamberet tomorrow night and the following night, there's the Cirque Européen - the European Circus - which arrived this morning. That's the second circus in as many months. I'm not sure what this one is about, but I noticed in passing soon after they arrived that there were a couple of donkeys and horses grazing on the aforesaid Champ de Foire grassy area. This circus was down the road from us at the weekend at Treignac and they had a very impressive Big Top. I need to go and check that out as it's not quite visible from our house. (Also need to check if they are asking people to remove the manure which their animals deposit on the grassy area and which will all go to help our veg! The camel, zebra and alpaca dung from the last circus a couple of months ago seems to be helping Harry's veg.)
The Fete de la Musique looks interesting - this coming Saturday evening (21 June - isn't that Midsummer Day? I'm never sure about that) there will be a mass Zumba plus other music activities all for free on the Champ de Foire.
Then during the summer we have Les Heures Musicales (Musical Hours) with music in churches and our local Salle de Fetes, les Marchés Festifs, with local producers selling wine, cheese, meat, etc, which you then can cook and eat on site, with friends and neighbours, as you wish, the Vide Grenier (Village Car Boot Sale), 2 free concerts with Dance and Folk Music Groups from anywhere in the world, all accompanied by that great French institution, La Buvette - the outside bar, staffed and provided by local volunteers.
And during the summer, also there will be Exhibitions/Expositions, including an exhibition by artists who are members of Chamb'ART. The exhibitions will be at the newly restored Maison St André which is next to the church in Chamberet. (The church has some interesting relics on display in the porch, including a fabulous chasse/casket from about 1500) Harry Tyler is a member of Chamb'ART, moi aussi, but only as a supporter/committee member, not as an artist, as my talents lie in other directions!
The diary is filling up - Famine (often) in winter, Feast in summer! Let's feast!
© Marie Tyler, 2014
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