Fest Noz as a Breton welcome
So let me tell me a bit about our vacation in Brittany. Hmm it is always difficult to tell afterwards about a vacation. there is too much to tell in one message. I never even managed to get a start from our trip in India.
Anyway, so lets start to talk at least a bit about Brittany while it is fresh in my memory.
The drive there was long and fairly boring: frequent rain up to Normandy only to be alternated with more and more traffic jams. First only a few kms at the frequent 'peage' boots (what a great reason to be in a traffic jam: paying road taxes!) up to a 1 hour standstill in the beginning of Brittany. But after a couple of hours we finally arrived in the village of Saint Laurent de la Mer to meet with the friendly man from whom we had rented the house there.
I wonder if he usually speaks the local Breton dialect because I somehow had the feeling that he didn't speak French too well. How bigheaded does that sound huh from a non native speaker. Sorry!!
After a long grocery shopping trip and an excellent BBQ empowered by the men in the garden, Jan and my mom and I went for an evening walk to check out the village where we had arrived. Trusting the sense of direction of Jan in the dark we walked through the little streets to a lookout point over the Bay of St Brieux.... hmmm nice impressive amount of black space with the sound of the waves crashing down below us. Lovely lookout in the night hihi
Then we tried to orientate ourselves to the sounds we heard throughout the village of Breton folk music. Street in and out we tried to guess how to reach for the local Fest-Noz that was going on. And yes , a little bit later we arrived on a sports terrain where a folk band was playing life Breton folk music and a big local crowd dancing the traditional dances. Cooooool, we had arrived at a true Breton 'Boombal', complete with local cider and my mom and I trying to figure out the dance steps in the dark. oooh I so urgently n eed to go to a Flemish boombal iniatiation to learn the basic steps for a 'Scottish' etc because these dances really looked like what they were dancing at the festival in Ghent in Baudelo and in the Dranouter folk festival. So cool to feel part of this huge European folk revival .
in the rest of the week, we saw banners in almost all villages to announce local 'fest-noz' parties in villages all over. Today I saw on www.fest-noz.net that half of Brittany must be dancing all evening. Boy and did we ever think that we had a boombal hype in Flanders with folk balls everywhere and a first 4 day boombal festival... we can still learn from Brittany where the entire population old and young dances together on the village square. they make me jealous. I reminded me also of a night that Sofie and I were in Corfu and that we ended up in a local traditional Greek dance party on the street as well. So true and impressive to see them all dance their traditional dances! Let them never forget their own culture because it's so cool.
Anyway, we were deadly tired after the long drive so after a little big of dancing at the fest noz in St Laurant and a bit of cider we headed back to test our new Breton beds. (and I should go to bed now too... in Leuven). Bye bye
Anyway, so lets start to talk at least a bit about Brittany while it is fresh in my memory.
The drive there was long and fairly boring: frequent rain up to Normandy only to be alternated with more and more traffic jams. First only a few kms at the frequent 'peage' boots (what a great reason to be in a traffic jam: paying road taxes!) up to a 1 hour standstill in the beginning of Brittany. But after a couple of hours we finally arrived in the village of Saint Laurent de la Mer to meet with the friendly man from whom we had rented the house there.
I wonder if he usually speaks the local Breton dialect because I somehow had the feeling that he didn't speak French too well. How bigheaded does that sound huh from a non native speaker. Sorry!!
After a long grocery shopping trip and an excellent BBQ empowered by the men in the garden, Jan and my mom and I went for an evening walk to check out the village where we had arrived. Trusting the sense of direction of Jan in the dark we walked through the little streets to a lookout point over the Bay of St Brieux.... hmmm nice impressive amount of black space with the sound of the waves crashing down below us. Lovely lookout in the night hihi
Then we tried to orientate ourselves to the sounds we heard throughout the village of Breton folk music. Street in and out we tried to guess how to reach for the local Fest-Noz that was going on. And yes , a little bit later we arrived on a sports terrain where a folk band was playing life Breton folk music and a big local crowd dancing the traditional dances. Cooooool, we had arrived at a true Breton 'Boombal', complete with local cider and my mom and I trying to figure out the dance steps in the dark. oooh I so urgently n eed to go to a Flemish boombal iniatiation to learn the basic steps for a 'Scottish' etc because these dances really looked like what they were dancing at the festival in Ghent in Baudelo and in the Dranouter folk festival. So cool to feel part of this huge European folk revival .
in the rest of the week, we saw banners in almost all villages to announce local 'fest-noz' parties in villages all over. Today I saw on www.fest-noz.net that half of Brittany must be dancing all evening. Boy and did we ever think that we had a boombal hype in Flanders with folk balls everywhere and a first 4 day boombal festival... we can still learn from Brittany where the entire population old and young dances together on the village square. they make me jealous. I reminded me also of a night that Sofie and I were in Corfu and that we ended up in a local traditional Greek dance party on the street as well. So true and impressive to see them all dance their traditional dances! Let them never forget their own culture because it's so cool.
Anyway, we were deadly tired after the long drive so after a little big of dancing at the fest noz in St Laurant and a bit of cider we headed back to test our new Breton beds. (and I should go to bed now too... in Leuven). Bye bye
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