Day 2

I love France! I was born here and lived here till I was 6, so everything makes sense to me here. A lovely gentleman at the next table insisted on taking my photo for me (rather than the end-of-the-arm shot I was trying). So the happy snap of me is after being very resourceful, and buying a 2nd-hand bike from a pawn shop. And they are going to buy it back at the end of my trip too. This came after chatting about the hopeless transport situation to the taxi driver taking me home, and now I'm thinking there is a business to be made hiring bikes to Festival goers everywhere in the world...

The first photo is from the School of Puppetry here, and is a famous moving clock which performs on the hour- it is a giant marionette manipulating little ones. Then we see 9 people crowded around a booth to peep at a minature theatre show, including candle lights on all the tables- the best bit was at the end when the puppeteer tilted a mirror to show us all to ourselves watching the tiny show. The Street theatre comes in all shapes and sizes: a busker using didgeridoo music to reenact caveman discovering fire; 3 weird men making women dance with them, then driving one off in their little car; and a man dancing with a wildly rotating full-size digger to operatic soundtrack.

As you can see from the photo of the main square, people are flocking in for the first weekend of the Festival. The narrow cobbled streets are packed, which could be romantic, but is just annoying. Especially when you have a new red shiny 5-gear mountain bike you want to try out.

Saw two theatre shows: 'Kefar Nahum' by Moussoux Bonte from Belgium- butoh inspired object manipulation and transformation in a light corridor, with live musician punctuating the action. No text, just images; small scenes changing and being thrown off the table to make room for the next one. Loved it's weirdness, and reminded me of the importance of EVERY single movement of fingers and hands.

Then a double-bill of two young companies: from Belgium 'Compagnie Alea', and Israel's 'Yael Rasooly'. Lots of French text, and character work interacting with glove puppets and a cello case. There seemed to be a layer of depth missing for the audience to sink their teeth into, and the fidgeting during the second half seemed to reflect this. Or it could have been the hard seats. Anyway, how lucky am I to be in France seeing shows from around the world!? Then I jumped on my bike and cycled the 15mins home, a happy, tired Festival goer.