Having made the first of the frames for hanging paintings/photos at the Barge Arts Expo, I now had to work out how many frames I’d need to make in total. So I spent the morning with tape measure in hand measuring all the blank wall space on the ground floor. In total, we had about 30 metres of wall space in the lounge, dining room, hallway, kitchen and lightwell. I then added up the width of all the exhibits and it came to about 16metres, so it looked like we would have enough space in total. I then matched exhibits to available spaces and worked out that we would need about 15 more frames, which would require about 50 lengths of 2.4m timber.

While I was doing these calcs on a spreadsheet, I was also following the AFL game between Geelong and St Kilda. Geelong were on top of the ladder and St Kilda were in the bottom third, so Geelong should have won. But St Kilda got off to a good start, which Geelong had closed by halftime. Since it could be a close finish, I watched the second half live on the internet. It came down to a 3 point win, with St Kilda kicking the last two goals of the match in the closing minutes. I was particularly interested because, unexpectedly, this would enable Hawthorn to leapfrog them tomorrow if they could beat Gold Coast, and go to the top of the ladder.

While I got back to work on the iron gates, Rita and Jackie went down to the market and bought some flowers and other plants for the garden, from Veronica’s brother who runs a nursery between Moissac and Castelsarassin.

In the afternoon we headed into town to catch the next performance by Les Clandestines. Whereas yesterday’s performance had an Italian flavour (the group is French), today’s had an American theme depicting the opening up of the western prairies by early settlers. A most unusual act. They (nine female singers, and two male musicians) appeared from behind the houses fronting the Abbey, carrying planks of timber. They then proceeded to gradually move to their main area by the side of the Abbey, using the planks for various purposes to depict various events in the settling of western America. Once they got there, they used the planks in a number of ways, building and rebuilding their stage set many times during the performance, and even using one timber box as a coffin in one of the scenes. Most of the performance was in English (I wondered how the French audience was following the story line), and ranged from the abstract to the slapstick. An interesting concept, but perhaps a tad too long once the novelty had worn off.

When we got home after this performance, Rita and Jackie did some planting to provide some ground cover in the garden beds. While the roses were starting to bloom and look quite beautiful, we thought we needed some colour at ground level to liven up the rest of the garden.

Before long it was time to head back to town for the evening concert. Most of the other concerts we have attended have been free events (paid for by the Mairie and the Tourism Office). But tonight was a big paid event, with the singer Rokia Traore from Mali. I had never seen her before, or even heard of her, but she came with good references. The concert was being held in the Cloister, where last year we saw Al Jarreau. As we settled into our second row seats (first in, best dressed), the girls were pretty happy with themselves.

As night fell, and the concert began the beauty of the venue become apparent.

However, after half an hour, the hardness and narrowness of the wooden seats began to take their toll. My back was killing me, and there wasn’t really enough room to stretch out. After another song, I decided that the music wasn’t interesting enough (for me) to endure the seats any longer. So I got up and wandered to the rear of the audience, and then after another song I took my leave and walked home (I wasn’t the only one leaving, but I was not sure whether it was the music or the seats for others). By the time I got home, my back had loosened up quite a lot and the pain had subsided.

While I was at the concert, I had behaved myself and not checked the progress of the Czech SPG Speedway meeting on my phone. Now that I was home, I checked the final results on the internet and was pleased to see that Australian Jason Doyle had won his first Grand Prix event.