We travelled to St Paul les Dax, south west France, for our tour this year, leaving on Thursday 18th.  We had our usual stop in Sally Pussey’s Inn, just outside Royal Wootton Bassett, for lunch and went on to Gatwick for our evening flight to Bordeaux. Keeping us entertained on the bus was Gareth John with his ‘famous’ quizzes. We arrived at just past midnight at our hotel, the Hotel Caliceo, which was excellent. However, the lack of an open bar made us retire to our rooms at a reasonable hour!

On the Friday morning we were invited to the Mayor’s Parlour for refreshments and we sang ‘La Marseilliaise’ (the French National Anthem) and our own anthem for the dignitaries present.  We then went for an excellent lunch at ‘Campanile’, which was a short walk around the lake from the hotel. 

Following this, we spent a quiet afternoon in preparation for our first concert later in the evening, which was held at St Paul’s church. The concert started at 8.30pm, which was rather late for us, but it is the tradition in France. This became evident when we were about to enter the church to sing, but were held up, due to the last minute arrival of many of the audience. In fact, the church was full when we started (surely holding 250), which was a huge fillip for the choir, who then enjoyed the excellent acoustic to give a rousing performance. We were joined by a small singing group from the locality, led by Antonio, who had a fine voice. We had learned ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’ by Faure, in French, which went down very well and suited the lovely ambience of the church. We finished with ‘An American Trilogy’ and received a deserved standing ovation. We then sang our own National Anthem, which seemed very popular in this rugby playing area of France. Following the concert we went back to ‘Campanile’ for refreshments and a few

We had arranged a visit to Jurancon on Saturday, for lunch and a trip around the famous Jurancon vineyard. We also had a short session of tasting their award winning wine and then made our way back, which somehow took half an hour less than getting there, as we took a ‘shortcut’! We then got ready for our concert, which was held at St Bartholomews Church in Castets, which was about a half hour drive from our hotel. Again it was a late start and this time we were joined by ‘A mi Chant’ under the direction of Monique Gracie. They were an excellent local choir, singing the complete programme ‘a capella’ and many of the songs were of African origin. They finished their set with a very rhythmical version of ‘Kwmbayah’ accompanied by a conga drum. Following our last set we had another standing ovation from the packed audience. We were then treated to some great hospitality from ‘A mi Chant’ and had a really good afterglow with both choirs singing alternate items. A very enjoyable night was had by all.  Our concert in Castets was recorded, to hear this recording please click here and to see some photographs please click here.

On Sunday a number of us went to Capbreton, a beautiful village on the coast and about 45 minutes drive from St Paul les Dax. We were dropped off and sent on a long walk around the harbour, which was full of sailing boats. Eventually we arrived at the seafront, which was really worth the wait. There was mile upon mile of golden sands and many restaurants by the beach. We had a lovely meal and walk, soaking up the warm sunshine, and found a shorter way back to our bus on our return (There’s a theme here!). We then went to St Paul les Dax rugby club, in the evening, for a short informal concert and spent many hours enjoying the hospitality of the club’s members.

We left on Monday after having a wonderful meal at the Hotel Caliceo and went to Bordeaux. We had a guided tour around the city, which is a fabulous place, on the Garonne River. It has lots of narrow streets, full of restaurants and shops, and many historical buildings. We eventually got back to Swansea at about 6.00am on Tuesday morning.

The entire trip had been organised by our hard working committee, but John ‘Wally’ Carey was the one who set the ball rolling. He has had an apartment in the village for many years and visits it regularly (we can see why!), and knows a number of influential contacts. He set up the concerts, meals, trips and visit to the local rugby club. He was ably assisted by Alan Clewett, secretary, and Adrian Crowley. We must also mention Nigel Norman, who is our linguist, and he was able to converse by email and phone and acted as our translator during our stay. This was a memorable trip – and arguably the best yet. Many thanks also to Nick (who also tried to introduce the concert items in French!), Rhian and Steve for their tremendous efforts in making the concerts such a success.

To see photographs of the highlights of our tour please click here.