Sous Fifres de Garonnes

So, the festival that I was at in Bordeaux wasn't all burning pianos. In fact it was a festival based (loosely) around the fife tradition of that area, which is about 50k east of Bordeaux. The Festival website is here, but go directly to a couple of videos of previous years here.
I was over with Harry Bradley and Liam O'Connor and had a ball it must be said. Here's a video clip (courtesy of my iPhone, so don't expect Hollywood) of the local fife players this year.

We were playing a session is a local restaurant, and they played outside to attract a crowd.
I met an interesting chap there called Christian Vieussens, who has been largely instrumental, pun unintentional, in encouraging and maintaining the fife tradition there. For those who read French, he has compiled an exhaustive study of the fife in the music of the Garonne region, which you'll find here.
They've promised to send on photos and recordings etc (of me and the lads) so watch this space.

P.S. As someone equally interested in food and natural history, I had the opportunity to eat something unusual while in St. Pierre. Last time I saw one of these creatures he was attached to a large trout (caught by Liam, as a matter of fact) up in Galway. This time it was on a plate in a nice red wine sauce...mmmmm lamprey!