Saintes and Bayonne

For some reason, I did not post this after I wrote it last year. I have no clue what happened. Anyways, Clog America is off in Europe currently and all the pictures make me miss dancing with them; I especially miss the festival experience. I'm definitely looking forward to dancing in the Springville World Folk Festival in Utah to get a little of my festival fix.  In the meantime, here is what went on last year at one of the most... interesting.... festivals I have been at! 


Travel back in time to 2011 and hope the ocean over to France......


Well, I hope someone is enjoying these pictures, because here come more! After Paris, we drove down to Saintes, in the Bordeaux region, for our first festival. 

Jam session with Venezuela, Canary Islands, and Mexico

Amanda and I with Eva, from Venezuela. She was very friendly!

Amanda and I with Eva and the group from India. They had a guy doing some nifty magic tricks, which was fun! This first day at the festival was really great for visiting with the other countries. 

With my friends from Venezuela.

So we had a lot of down time at this festival... a lot! This day, rather than wander through the city, Amy and I decided to stay at the school where we ate lunch and just talk and read and nap. This was my view from the ground... quite lovely!

This is Amy and I resting. We had a really great conversation that afternoon, which was so awesome. That was one of the great things about this tour: really having time to get to know people and have more of those deeper conversations.

Jen G.'s awesome friend Amy came on tour for the first little while. She rocks! The three of us were roommates in Saintes and we had a fun time, especially with our self-made booby traps (aka laundry lines). Amy also rocked the bag-watching duty. After our show this night we paraded and she stayed behind to watch our stuff... and ended up having to rescue it twice from the sprinklers! Talk about dedication. 

Jenny and I with a friend from India. They performed some very fun dancing, more towards the Bhangra style, I think. Either way, they did a great job. I wish I could have seen more!

My fun friend from the Canary Islands!  We got to talk a lot in Spanish. He invited me to visit him in the Canary Islands, told me about his house on the beach there, his family, and we even talked a little bit of religion! Chrissy served a Spanish-speaking mission and had talked to him about the Church, and we continued some of that conversation as well. Mom, the minute he invited me to visit and stay with his family, I thought of you and I taking a vacation... :)

Venezuela! Some of these South American dancers have some far-out costumes and dances. In spite of the show-girl-esque costumes, this dance was fairly tame. 

I'm so bad, but I don't remember where this dancer is from. I want to say Taiwan, and I'm pretty sure that is correct.  I should whip out my journal and make sure, but I'm tired and lazy right now. Either way, she is beautiful!

Sometimes the food we got was pretty good. Sometimes we got a lot of mystery meat. This lunch was particularly unappetizing, though. Rice with corn, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and tuna. I didn't eat much. Food was on our agenda for the afternoon outing. 

We listened to our amazing band rehearse for a little while in the afternoon. Seriously, they know how to jam! They are all super skilled individually, and collectively they make great music. 

Our fabulous show at some chateau with one porta potty for the entire event, rationed food (see below) and stinging nettle in the changing areas.... which come to think of it, the changing areas weren't close enough to the stage so we were in the "woods" behind the stage... with the stinging nettle. And a steep ramp to get on stage. No stairs, just a ramp. Great in slippery clogs. Or character shoes. 

Before we got kicked off the "eating" tables. We didn't know, we just wanted some place to get ready!

Fries, cantaloupe, fried chicken and apple tart: the dinner of champions. One piece of chicken each please, and no more! And no more fries! (It was a strict kitchen.)