I don't think I can adequately describe how utterly French are the towns around where we have our barn and little farmhouse. In our tiny hamlet there are really only three family names in the whole village and the folks refer to each other through three generations of connections.... 'Pierre's Thierry's Marguerite'. The nearest town of any size, Corbigny, has a little winding market street that has cheese shops, butchers, bakeries, wine shops... and on the edge of the town an old roman road still pokes its flagstones out of the grass. So these places have been around for a long time and feel so deeply French.. multiculturalism hasn't exactly made a lot of inroads here. It is amazing down here...but occasionally you just would die to see a larger mix of people and backgrounds on the streets
So it was with a sense of sublime discombobulation and satisfaction that we stumbled upon a parade that was held to publicize a festival of the arts in another little village nearby. These guys were the Rajasthan Gitane Orchestra. As near as I could understand from the little bit of information they are a branch of the Gypsies that still live in India.
They walked, and danced through the centre of town playing brass band instruments. I guess they are a heritage from the British military marching bands of India. The two drummers had managed to turn themselves into a sort of Tabla for two...but played on marching drums. They were quite amazing and obviously were enjoying themselves immensely... probably just from watching the expressions of complete astonishment on the faces of the villagers.
They played a short set in the local park and then drifted away. Leaving the village as calm and unperturbed as before.... but maybe ever so slightly less 'french'...
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