Saturday 16th August

Here in Eymet they have a festival for every occasion and to day is a celebration of white wine and oysters.  The square had been packed since about 11 with people eating and drinking almost non-stop.  There is, as well as oysters all manner of seafood, grilled prawns, moules et frites, barabecued fish and duck and chicken and paella and fois gras, and of course lots of stalls selling their wine, by the glass, by the bottle and by the case.  Everyone seems to be having fun.  You just cannot imagine anything like this en Angleterre.   A week ago there was the medieval festival and yesterday, as well as the usual Marche there was a gourmande evening in Parc Frestierre.  The entertainment was bizarrely a Country and Western Line Dancing display, full of cowboy hats and yee-ha’s and thumping disco-ised versions of Country and Western songs.

Again lots of food and drink and people were dancing and clapping along to the music.  There will be live music in the square tonight too.   It is all a sort of organized chaotic madness.  For two months in the summer the whole Dordogne seems to go crazy.  You could say it was the tourists but the French outnumber us here, especially in their consumption of food and drink.  As the Beatles once sang  “A splendid time is guaranteed for all”   And one mustn’t forget that apart from the pretty cheap food and wine it is all free.   None of us can even imagine anything like this in England.