The End of Summer

No, not the weather, but the Summer season.  The Fête at St Germain du Bel Air, which was this weekend, comes as the school holidays end and the tourists go back home.  So, 4 days of eating, drinking, music and dancing.  From Thursday evening until tonight, Sunday, all manner of bands, playing till about 3 am ... and they can be heard throughout the valley!

Over the course of the weekend there are Petanque competitions, the funfair, a Mass on Sunday morning and the Fête meal.
This was last night and was held in the market place.  The meal nominally started at 8.30 and people started to arrive from about 7.30 to meet up with friends, family, neighbours ... in fact most of the town! 

Everyone had to take their own plates, cutlery and glasses and gradually people found places in a sheltering marquee or just nearby.

Eventually the meal was ready and we all had to go to collect each course; salad starter, grilled lamb and a type of baked beans, goats cheese and finally apple tart.

The noise levels rose as wine was drunk, the band came inside the tent to continue playing, and slightly inebriated locals tried to compete drumming on oil drums!

Needless to say all of this took a long time and so the music and meal in the tent overlapped with the main band of the evening who started to play at 10.30 in the adjacent car park next to the Hôtel de Ville.

(Sorry about the quality of the photo but it was getting past my bedtime!)

We can't understand how all of this gets paid for.  The 'warm-up' band had 10 musicians, and the main band for the evening, who played from 10.30 till at least 2.30 in the morning, had 7 musicians, 2 singers and 4 dancers who kept changing costumes!  And there are 3 nights like this, as well as other musicians during the afternoons. 
And all in an insignificant small town in deepest rural France!!!