French Model Railway: France 2015 Day 5: First Brocante of the year

Last night's dinner:

Cap d'Agde

A lovely modest wee joint

Mixed Salad

Smoked salmon and spinach galette

Un grand creme

Le Choeur d'Hommes Orphee:

After the galette walked up the hill to the church of St Benoit, Cap d'Agde to attend a concert by a male voice choir accompanied by the soloist, Domitelle Maillet.

We always manage to catch one of these choral concerts when we're in France. I would say that this was the most impressive of the lot. I actually didn't feel like going because of the 25 mile drive that was entailed.

God it was worth it. Professional, serious, robust, resonant, sincere (no silly simperng facial expressions) yet uplifting. The programme was entirely classical.

That's the second fantastic live musical experience in two consecutive days - and both were free!

St Benoit

I found this androgynous figure of Christ very affecting.

Entrance of the heroes.

Professional yet uplifting.

They filled the space with voice.

The soloist

Almost a simper but not quite.

Last Night's French Model Railway related incident:

Bought this little tin plate 2cv Van from a charity stall at St Benoit

Charming and basically H0 scale - 1 euro.

This morning's early morning drumming practice down at the Med:

For the last 5 days I have been teaching myself to play the Caixa snare drum left-handed. I think that forcing myself to approach the rhythms from a completely new angle will access a different part of my mind - perhaps a naturally more musical part.

The mnemonic for remembering one of my most used Samba patterns.

Brocante at Le Marseillan Plage:

One of the joys of visiting France is picking up something for my model railway from a brocante - basically a gigantic boot sale.

Over the years it has become increasingly difficult to find genuine H0 scale items at these events. Most folk know that they can get more money for such specialised items on the internet.

But one lives in hope.

And this morning I struck lucky.

The wheel came off this chap's trolley and I managed to lift up the fridge for him to replace it. Self-heroism.

After wandering around the site for about an hour I found this little beauty after rummaging through a cardboard box that sat on top of another box behind a white van.

An H0 scale newspaper stand complete with papers on the counter.

I was prepared to pay 10 euros for this but when I used one of my few words of French -"Combien?" - the vendor said I could have it as "un cadeau" - a gift.

Sartre and Coffee:

Still managed to sit down and read for half an hour at the Brocante's cafe: