Marciac; home to the biggest jazz festival in Europe for two weeks every August. Some of the biggest names in the jazz world perform there every year and visitors come from all over the world to be part of this magnificent event. But it doesn’t stop there; this is a town entirely given over to music; mostly jazz, but other genres too, there are concerts going on throughout the year. And the best bit is – it’s only 25 miles down the road!

We were lucky enough to get tickets to see the American saxophonist, Scott Hamilton play with his band and the pianist and singer Dena de Rose, last night. It had been a busy day; a trip to Bordeaux to pick Julie up from the airport as Adrian’s back was bad meant that we didn’t get home till 7.30pm, we shovelled some food down and were back on the road for 8pm. The roads were quiet and it was a beautifully clear night, with an almost full moon casting an eery light. The road from Termes d’Armagnac to Marciac is lined on one side by tall plane trees, standing like ghostly white sentinels below the floodlit 12th century tower at Termes; it looked like the setting for a Halloween ghost story.

But all spooky thoughts were forgotten when we arrived at the gig; Marciac is a small but vibrant town, we easily found the venue and were able to relax and enjoy the music. It was played as jazz ought to be played; not overly rehearsed, each musician listening to what the rest of them were playing and adapting their part in it accordingly. Songs that you thought you knew sounded totally different from anything you’d heard before. A fantastic evening; we’ll be going to more concerts there 🙂

It was cold by the time we got home and this morning there’d been a frost. When I planted French beans at the end of August, gardeners threw their hands up in horror, declaring that it was far too late and I’d certainly not get any beans. But there are some tiny, thread-like beans on the plants now, so Nick and Kieran built a makeshift greenhouse over them this afternoon to protect them from the frost forecast for tonight. Breezeblocks, old wooden joists and the windows we took out last year were all put to good use and, hopefully, will allow us to get a late crop of beans.