A week ago we received a flyer in the mailbox advertising an afternoon concert to be held in the local Church – Saint Andrew’s (Eglise Saint-André la Vilasse).

When the flyer arrived, I was pleased that my sister would be here to enjoy all the Fenouillet locals had to offer. Mick was pleased too, as he had an excuse not to go. He is not keen on concerts at the best of time, and a bunch of amateurs singing and performing was definitely not his idea of a fun way to spend an afternoon.

I had no idea what was instal for us, even with the flyer. There was no mention of a price or a time frame – but the photos on the flyer showed lots of people enjoying themselves.

My sister and I headed off about half an hour before the concert was advertised to commence as there are very few car parking spaces in La Vilasse, and I was hoping to secure one.

The Church was being heated with a big fan as we entered, and it had been on for some time. It was nice and toasty inside.

The alter was lit with mood lighting which transformed the church into cabaret atmosphere. A band, consisting of five players plus one back up singer were getting organised as we took our seats. By the time the concert started, the church had more than 70 people inside.

We were not asked to pay an entry fee (or even asked for a donation on the way out); it was a totally free event for the locals, but the performers were not locals, they were professionals.

Dominique and Phillipe (in the mauve shirt in this picture with the female backup singer), performed not stop for two hours (too long really as the church became very cold and the seats were pretty hard). Every time Phillipe had a bracket of songs, Dominique raced off and changed her outfit. She changed at least 10 times and each time she looked wonderful. Her voice became weaker after about an hour, and I think the change of clothes helped distract us about that, but I could be being unkind.

To keep warm, and because the songs enticed them to, some people got up and danced at the back of the church. Sadly for my photo the lighting wasn’t great in that direction.

Phillipe sang three songs in English, but the rest were in French and obviously were well known, as singing along with the performers was encouraged.

Thanks to the repetition of the words in some of the songs I worked out a few of them and looked them up on Google and YouTube when I got home. If you interested you can click the links I’ve included – they are obviously famous French songs.

• Chez Laurette
• Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler
• Oui, Je L’adore
• Quelque Chose de Tennessee

There was only one French song I recognised on the day and that was this beautiful one we have been studying with our French tutor here in Fenouillet.

• Belle Ile en Mer Marie Galant.

Just another surprise experience in Fenouillet!!