Towards the middle of June, when I finally began to emerge from the endless recitals and exams, the weather became unbearably hot. The consequence was a series of apocalyptic thunderstorms, one of which overwhelmed the drains and sewers where I am living while I was in Bordeaux, leaving the owners of the house with a big clean-up job. Despite the massive amounts of rain falling in extreme downpours, the whole region is suffering a drought and the water wells where I fill up my bottles are dwindling to a trickle.
CGN lake steamer at the jetty in Villeneuve
As the steamer pulls away you can see a monster storm brewing over Lac Léman (Lake Geneva)
Same day view from the garden at my place, where the palm tree now obscures the view of the lake that I used to have
Large woman takes picture of small dog in Martigny, in an art installation with large stones and mirrors in Avenue de la Gare
Another consequence of this was felt when I went to a remote corner of canton Vaud in the Jura foothills, to the village of Mollens. This year it was the turn of Mollens to organise a Giron de Musique, which normally rotates each year between other villages in the Pied du Jura region, where the local music societies, including brass bands and wind bands, parade down the lanes in full uniforms. Parallel to this is a competition for young soloists which is usually entrusted to me. This takes place in the church, which dates back to Cluny times, which has a nice acoustic and was the coolest place in the village...in terms of temperature. The storm damage was quickly seen when we arrived at the village, after a 20 minutes drive from Morges. Flower beds and plantations had been completely destroyed by golf ball sized hailstones and further down, in the direction of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), the grapes in many vineyards had been wiped out. It was a scramble to clear up and prettify the village again in time for the musical event.
Entry to the village of Mollens
The village church, highly important in Cluny times, where we played the contest
The community center, the headquarters of the contest
There's a lot of forgotten history in the villages at the foot of the Jura, as well as a rather dark record of burning people suspected of sorcery
Quite a bit of excitement with a procession of tractors the same day as the contest: mine is bigger than yours
View from Mollens of the peaceful countryside sloping down towards the lake, which becomes vineyards further down