LE PETIT CHOEUR D'OCCITANIE

LE PETIT CHOEUR D'OCCITANIE - A REVIEW

Every year, a group called Friends of the Organ present concerts to the benefit of the maintenance fund for the fine pipe organ in the Catholic church in Cazouls-les-Beziers, the town in which we owned our first home in France. We've attended a couple of those concerts in the past and have not been disappointed. One night, two local choirs gave separate recitals, then joined en masse for a few final numbers. High level, pleasing albeit amateur performances. On another occasion, a soprano of regional renown entertained us most professionally. So we were on board when we learned that Le Petit Choeur d'Occitanie (The Little Occitan Choir) would be performing Renaissance music in costume in the church this past weekend.

I cannot tell a lie. The concert was amateurish beyond excuse. Perhaps a test run for new material, perhaps a case of aspirations outstripping ability, whatever the reason, the concert was simply an embarrassment. I will not go into detail. It was bad. Period.

Why write about it, then? Why not just give them a pass? If I have nothing good to say, why say anything at all?

As a restaurant reviewer in another life, I made it clear to my editors that I would not praise a meal that didn't meet certain standards. When a venue later to be named one of the 100 top restaurants in the States served my wife inedible skate, I had no alternative but to report the transgression. My insistence on honesty cost me my job. As a reviewer who has commented on every venue that I have visited since moving to France, and as my own editor, can I expect any less of myself today?

Comments

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats. So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up? It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

Kreuz Market vs. Smitty’s Market: Texas Barbecue in Lockhart

I was born and raised in New Jersey. I didn’t taste Texas barbecue until I was twenty-two years old. What the hell do I know about barbecue? And what could I add to the millions of words that have been written on the subject? Well, I know a bit about food. I’ve managed to check out a few of the finer joints in Texas – Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas, Joe Cotton’s in Robstown before the fire, the dear departed Williams Smokehouse in Houston, and the incomparable New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville . So I can speak from a reasonably wide experience. This will not be a comprehensive discussion of the relative merits of Texas barbecue as opposed to the fare available in places like Memphis or the Carolinas. It’s simply a take on our recent visits to Lockhart and the relative merits of Smitty’s versus Kreuz from our point of view. I’ll get all over academic in a later post. On our way out to the ranch in Crystal City, we stopped at Smitty’s. You have to look

VINS I LICORS GRAU: LARGEST WINE BOUTIQUE IN EUROPE

One of the regular sporting activities that those of us living in the south of France enjoy is the semi-annual Run to Spain. Most everybody takes part. It's not a track meet, though. It's a shopping run. We go because some items are cheaper in Spain, substantially so. (I buy Cathey's favorite perfume there because it sells for less than in the duty-free shops, much less than in the local French parfumerie . But don't tell Cathey that. It'll be our little secret.) Some items simply are not available locally - a reasonable selection of Spanish wines, a bottle of brandy to feed the Christmas cake. And so, off we go Spain. Just across the border sits La Jonquera, a small Catalonian town whose name is now attached to a massive array of opportunities to spend euros - department stores and specialty shops, garden centers, liquor stores, tobacconists, groceries and butchers. You want it? You can buy it somewhere along the main drag heading south out of the old town. We

France, Food, Scooters and More

Search This Blog