mardi 22 juin 2010
June 21st is, as anyone living in France will tell you, the day when anyone and everyone can go out in the street and play music, or just put out a boombox (geez, does that date me?) and play music really loud, or basically anything that might pass as music.

I get enough bad street music 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday thank you very much, I don't need a special day dedicated to it.

When the warm-up screechings outside my window started up around 7 pm, I realized all hopes of studying for my Oral Exams Thursday were shot. I grabbed my boxes, headed to Appart A'Tart, ordered dinner and a 25 cL pitcher of wine, and proceeded to study and drink wine in the relative quiet of the restaurant. Left around 9 pm, and took a brief detour through downtown to see what was happening. Musical groups, big and small, professional and very very not, with no attempts to be out-of-earshot of each other.

Passed this group set up on stage, no idea who they were but they were obviously important enough to warrant stage space, followed by an improptu brass band, a South American panpipe player, and a disc jockey, all within about 200 meters of each other.
I dislike big crowds, so quickly beat a retreat to my apartment. Was hoping the official cut-off time was 10 pm, but no such luck. Under the exhaustion of studying and the effects of the wine, managed to drift in and out of sleep until 1 am, until the last music group stopped.
Gee, can't wait for next year.

3 commentaires:

Starman a dit…

They do get loud. When we were in Paris for la Fête de la Musique, it lasted past 01h00, and even though it was several blocks away, it sounded like it was just outside the window.

Brandi a dit…

In the villages it's not so bad... Probably most people head into the city to play their bad music ;)

Mwa a dit…

Strange concept. I suppose it could be alright if you weren't doing exams and you were in the mood. Maybe next year you can find a good band and have a picnic.

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