My Cow Herd
Sallyann was festival director for CowParade Manchester and secured two cows for me so that I could begin my rural life in France. Adam was, at the time, an out of work creative and he customised my first proper cow.
Let me intoduce you to Genetically Mooooodified.
Mol is an artist working on cow number two. I'm currently searching for an artist for cow number three which needs to be floral.
Stand by Monsieur Cazemajour, here comes the low maintenance herd.
A French Celebration
So Jean Claude and Loic go for the PACS.
Le Pacte civil de solidarite (PACS) was legally established on 15 november 1999. Apart from being a public commitment between two people, it brings with it legal rights for both partners. Amazingly you can also dissolve it instantly with just a couple of signatures in front of a solicitor. Setting it up takes a bit more form filling, and a signing ceremony.
For one reason or another, the PACS signing ceremony for Jean Claude and Loic was out of sync with the celebration, the former being held two weeks after the latter. There had been many unpredictable storms, so the old school at Lasbordes was taken over as a timber roofed cover would offer protection from the rain – but it never did.
This was my first French social engagement and what an introduction it turned out to be. I got to the schoolyard at 8pm and left at 4am and never stopped yapping, dancing or eating the entire time. It was a dress-down affair, a full family event with four generations of Jean Claude’s family there. The seven course meal was delivered in a refrigerated lorry and from the superb hors d’oeuvres through to the mini gateaux at the end, the quality of the food was sublime. There was local pate de fois gras; home grown asparagus; beef from nearby Sauveterre and on and on.
A Basque banda got us onto our feet and onto the long benches. The home grown rock band was typically French pop and we know where those nul points come from – but it was fabulous. Everyone sang, all ages danced together and there was even a startling gay cabaret around 2am, flounced to ‘Life is a Cabaret’ and ‘New York’ – choreographed by Jean Claude, who it turns out, had a hit record on vinyl in the 1960s. I’ve yet to listen to that one.
It was the best night I’ve had in many years. I felt privileged to be there.
Francoise, who organised the schebang with her husband Didier, waved her arms and said ‘we often do fetes like this’ – if that’s the case, I’m sticking with them.
