On June 21st, a Sunday and the first day of Summer, Besançon held it's annual music festival. Our tutor was going to be playing by the Rivotte, about a 20 minute walk from our apartment, so we planned on seeing her and then listening to other artists as they would be scattered all over the city.
It was a pretty crummy day weather-wise, either raining or misting all day long. We set out at around noon to head to Rivotte. To our surprise, we passed no one on the way there. Once we got there, no bands were playing either! We had gotten there by walking along the river, so heading back we decided to take a different route that would bring us through much of center city. Nothing! We figured everything got cancelled due to the rain and headed back to the apartment to have a lazy Sunday.
At somewhere between 5 and 6 pm, we suddenly started hearing music through our open windows. At first I was too tired and miserable to go back out and venture, the walking and rain had agitated my bad leg, but some jazz music made it's way to my ear and we went out in search for it. Well, the city was transformed! Every corner and side street had musicians playing. From a couple kids rapping, to rock bands, to a couple old men playing accordions, to solo acoustic guitar, every genre imaginable was being played.
I never did find my jazz trumpet, so we joined our friends at a bar right around the corner from the apartment. It was in a large plaza so it had been turned into one of the larger "main stages" of the area. Currently an electro-pop type band was playing. We asked our friends why it was on a Sunday and why it started so late.
Apparently, all of France has a "fête de la musique" on the summer solstice no matter what day it is, also explaining starting late (since people would still be working if it had been a work day). I don't understand why they wouldn't take advantage of it being on the weekend by starting earlier, but I've noticed the French can be very slow to change their ways. If that's how it has always been, that's how it will most likely always be.
It was a pretty crummy day weather-wise, either raining or misting all day long. We set out at around noon to head to Rivotte. To our surprise, we passed no one on the way there. Once we got there, no bands were playing either! We had gotten there by walking along the river, so heading back we decided to take a different route that would bring us through much of center city. Nothing! We figured everything got cancelled due to the rain and headed back to the apartment to have a lazy Sunday.
At somewhere between 5 and 6 pm, we suddenly started hearing music through our open windows. At first I was too tired and miserable to go back out and venture, the walking and rain had agitated my bad leg, but some jazz music made it's way to my ear and we went out in search for it. Well, the city was transformed! Every corner and side street had musicians playing. From a couple kids rapping, to rock bands, to a couple old men playing accordions, to solo acoustic guitar, every genre imaginable was being played.
I never did find my jazz trumpet, so we joined our friends at a bar right around the corner from the apartment. It was in a large plaza so it had been turned into one of the larger "main stages" of the area. Currently an electro-pop type band was playing. We asked our friends why it was on a Sunday and why it started so late.
Apparently, all of France has a "fête de la musique" on the summer solstice no matter what day it is, also explaining starting late (since people would still be working if it had been a work day). I don't understand why they wouldn't take advantage of it being on the weekend by starting earlier, but I've noticed the French can be very slow to change their ways. If that's how it has always been, that's how it will most likely always be.