Apologies for the delay in posting this, and any suspicion that the delay was due to my visit to L'Academie des Bières on Sunday evening would certainly be ill-founded. (….but more of that later).
I have already recounted the happenings of Friday morning, including the conversation with Danny Boudreau and the rehearsal of Alexandra and Jesse – still feel very privileged to have witnessed the rehearsal, since it was to the first time that Jesse would have accompanied Alexandra Hernandez. Normally he is a member of Danny Boudreau's band.
After consuming steak and chips, with a small pichet of red wine at a bar-bistro near the hotel, I went for a further exploration of Valence, trying to get as close to the mighty Rhone as possible. It was quite chilly, as Le Mistral was blowing, but reasonably bright. I walked down to the Champ de Mars with its impressive bandstand and down into Parc Jouvet, where several types of trees were beginning to blossom, but the Rhone remained unreachable, beyond the very busy road along its bank. Leaving the Parc and crossing the Champ de Mars I headed off to the old part of the city, with its narrow streets, market place and cathedral. There are photos to illustrate this perambulation, but it may not be possible to upload them at present, due a limited amount of internet access time at my hotel.
Later I travelled to Le Train Theatre, once again with Catherine, and we arrived in time to see Alexandra Hernandez in apero-concert before the main evening show. She was very good – the rehearsals had clearly been worthwhile. Such was the informality of the situation that I was able to congratulate Danny Boudreau on his birthday at the bar. (The wonders of FaceBook!)
Then it was time for one of my personal highlights of the festival. After 'discovering' Geneviève Toupin on Myspace in 2009, I was lucky enough to see her perform twice in one day during the Coup de Coeur Francophone festival in Montréal in the November of that year. She has the most beautiful and distinctive voice, and her songs are wonderful too. Sadly I missed the opportunity to see her in Montréal last year, first because the Icelandic volcano stopped me going at all, and then I was out of the city seeing Luce Dufault when Geneviève appeared there again last November. So, you can understand that I was really looking forward to this performance, and I wasn't disappointed - she was absolutely wonderful, and was very well received by the audience in Portes-lès-Valence.
After the interval, during which Alain, Catherine, Graham, an Australian ex-pat, and I exchanged superlatives, we went back into the auditorium to see Danny Boudreau. Originally there were to have been three artistes on Friday's bill, with the great Zachary Richard, of Louisiana, topping it. Sadly Zachary was forced to withdraw, following a stroke last September, and a recent realisation that a trip to France was not such a sensible idea. He has made an excellent recovery, but such an exhausting trip may well have been detrimental to his long term progress. So Danny opened by reading a message from Zachary, expressing disappointment at not being there, and a promise to be there on stage in the not too distant future. So then it was up to Danny to counter the disappointment of the festival-goers, and did he do it? He most certainly did. His was one of the most powerful and emotion charged performances of the week, and in particular his 'hommage' to Zachary and his music was absolutely outstanding. Danny's latest album is a tribute to some of the great francophone poets and song-writers of Canada (and Louisiana). One song “Reveille”, delivered acapella, was particularly memorable – inoubliable, in fact. Wow what a show!
And then afterwards I bought M.Boudreau's latest album ”Mes Légendes”, which he kindly signed for me. I was delighted when Geneviève eventually came out into the foyer too, and made a bee-line through the masses to have a swift word with her. She was lovely, and stunned me by remembering my name, including surname – again, the wonders of Facebook. We had a little cht and I left her to the demands of the others queueing up to speak with her, with a G.T. Badge added to my jacket. What made the evening more perfect was that much later Geneviève actually came and sought me out to say bye, and to thank me for coming so far. It was a pleasure, I can tell you, as I told her. Then it was a further handshake and farewell from Danny, before Catherine and I made our way back to Valence. An unbelievable evening. Thank you Luce Dufault! If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been to Montréal three times, and I wouldn't have discovered such wonderful artistes, who also double as amazing people.
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