Did you know that Prat is the Catalan word for prairie or meadow?
De Mailly entered military service as a musketeer, and in 1749 was appointed lieutenant general for the Roussillon and commander in chief of the province.
The difference between ‘fanfares’ and ‘bandas’.
Although France has been laïque (secular) since 1905, there are a huge number of festivals and traditions based around the lives, accomplishments or remarkable events that happened to various saints.
The 15th August is the festival of l’Assomption – a jour férié (public holiday) celebrated by Catholics throughout France and commemorating the departure of Mary from this life and the assumption of her body into heaven.
Music for the sardane is played by a cobla, a wind band with double bass consisting of 12 instruments played by 11 musicians. Four of these instruments (tenora, tible, flabiol and tamborí) are typical Catalan instruments along with the more traditional trumpet, trombone, fiscorn and double bass. The makeup of a cobla never varies.
They might not all be a pulsing whirl of excitement – some are only small gatherings scantily attended – but it’s a great way to support the local producers.
As the Feria approaches, Simon Newman looks back on the traditional bull running in the streets of Ceret.
The poor were starving to death on the streets of Paris. In the royal palace, the king’s breakfast consisted of 4 chops, a full chicken, six poached eggs and a slice of ham, washed down with a bottle and a half of champagne.
In the sumptuous surroundings of the Chateau de Jau and its former silk-factory turned exhibition space, Nicolas Cussac’s art has found a home for the summer.
