Musiques dans Les Vignes in Seguret, Provence, France

I saw the advertisement for the Quatuor Antares violin concert at the Tourism office located in the center of town, located directly across the entrance to the Roman ruins of the Site Antique de Puymin. There is a wealth of information on all types of goings on in and around the village: Concerts, Theatre, Vide Grenier, cooking classes, guided historical tours, train rides around town - something for everyone. The office is staffed with local French people who actually want to help you and speak English (if you ask) although I was practising mon Francaise and did a fairly decent job of getting my questions asked and answered and obtaining the pertinent information I needed. I was looking for something special to do to get a true flavor of the surrounding area. And then it caught my eye, "Musiques dans Les Vignes". Wine? Mozart, Rachmaninov & Haydn on violins? {I digress, but here's a little piece of trivia I bet you didn't know - I didn't - unless, of course, you are a classical music buff. Wolfgang Mozart is the son of Joseph Haydn!} Under an arbor of entwined vines with the Provencal setting sun as a backdrop? What could be more perfect? And as luck would have it, the last event of the season was happening tonight, Mercredi 5 Aout. My timing was perfect - it made my decision easy.

Seguret is a short 8km distance from Vaison, not more than a ten minute drive by car or fifteen if you're driving slow so you can drink in all the surrounding scenery like I was. It is also classfied as Les Plus Beau Villages which means it has a population of less than 2000 people, has at least two historique structures within the village and was given a vote approval by the town council to be included. And beautiful it is.

This village is perched on the side of a hill, snuggled up close - one stone building after the next. The pebbled and well traversed alleyway of centuries old stone leading to the concert venue was dotted with picturesque maisons that looked like they had been plucked from the pages of a Peter Mayle book. The archway which framed the entrance posed the perfect photo backdrop for the concert. I could just barely see and get a small peek at the vineyard arbor with its twinkling lights delicately threaded through the vines waiting with welcoming arms for all the attendees to enter.

And when the musicians took the stage and began to play, I had to stop a moment, take a deep breath, and pinch myself. The melodic sounds emanating from their instruments, played in such beautiful harmony, with the composition of such delicate musical notes, underneath a blanket of hundred year old plus vines, on a warm summer night in the south of France, can you feel it? It gave me goosebumps. But the moment was momentarily tinged with a tiny but fleeting pang of sadness that my husband John could not be by my side to enjoy this special evening. And even though I was surrounded by a group of other lucky attendees, I felt a tad lonely . . . Silly, but there you have it. One and a half hours of the most soothing interlude of musical symphony . . . and to top off an already spectacular soiree, because it was the very last night of the summer program, we were treated to samplings of wines from the local chateau as a celebration and thank you for the completion of the 15th season of the "Musiques dans Les Vignes". And even though I might have been a little lonely, I wasn't really alone. As I was tooling home down the country backroads, with my windows rolled down and the rooftop skylight fully open to the starry sky, and enjoying the warmth of a balmy 22 degres Celcius night, I was kept company by the singing of the cicadas serenading me all the way on my journey home to Vaison-la-Romaine - a perfect finishing touch to a magical evening.