Went along to the kirk just now for the 'visite de l'orgue'. Fascinating, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening's grind. It's a powerful instrument, with 16, 8 and 4 in the pedal reeds, a reasonable diapason chorus (though with only one mixture stop) and a scattering of funnies, like the off-tune pairing of a Gambe and a Voix Céleste, much loved of César Franck in his more ethereal moments. It plays from only two manuals and a flat pedal board, but has a collossal dynamic range. Mechanical action throughout, with no slack in it, as far as I could see. And a nice set of enclosed reeds. Of the thunder pedal ... enfin, bon. The Chairman of the Association des Amis des Orgues lives just up the road from us, so I've signed up, and paid my €15. Such associations are required to declare themselves under a law of 1901, aimed at proscribing secret societies. Our walking club had to do so, and as I recall, had to pay a somewhat hefty registration fee for the privilege. I fear that, since I joined as a founder member in 1999, it has gone the way of all flesh, probably because guru-Chairman Patrick has been transferred to Foix.
We took to the hills yesterday, since the air was quite clear. We had fine views of the mountains from Quéribus. We dropped down to the valley of the Maury, turned right and came back up through the Gorges de Galamus, which I don't think I'd driven in the current (rather tall) vehicle. Or maybe I'm just getting twitchy in my declining years. Amazing road, though, chamfered into the cliff face. Unfortunately, the trip involved a lot of winding roads, so the ancient mitts were quite sore by the time we got back. Them's the hazards of ageing I suppose.
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