Thursday 9 October 2025

AFTER a leisurely breakfast I try and catch up with a little work promoting November’s album launch shows.

All of a sudden it’s lunch time and Marie-Claude has made magret duck. Adrien is in town and joins us.

I resist the temptation to go for a nap and go it for an hour so’s meander along the country roads and lanes near the mill.

We take a drive into Avoine to pick up some wine then back to the mill for dinner with Dominique, Marie-Claude and their pal Stephane.

Wednesday 8 October 2025

AFTER breakfast with Dominique and Marie-Claude I start working on some temporary videos for Facebook and Instagram ads for the album launch shows.

I need to get some ads running for these gigs ASAP –but the ‘master’ video I usually use for this is on the machine at home. In the meantime I’ll use the promos I filmed in the garden here at the mill.

Once edited into various vertical, square and 16:9 formats I set up the ads. We’re still not sure when we’ll be home, but whenever we do get back I’ll do some new video for the ads.

We have lunch in the garden and then have a nap before heading to La Salle de Sports for this evening’s show. It’s a small, almost private, gig and we have a lot of fun with our friends.

Back at the mill Marie-Claude makes dinner and we chat over a few glasses of red before bed.

Tuesday 7 October 2025

AFTER breakfast I do a bit of work on our local hydro society website and post some news round the socials. Best get that done now rather than wait ’til we get home.

The ‘when we get home’ to-do list has grown a little more than I would have hoped!

It’s another beautiful day so I take a walk for an hour and discover lots of interesting wee roads and buildings.

We drive to a nearby town to pick up one supplies and have a snack – when we get back Dominique and Marie-Claude are at the mill along with their pal Jacky.

After an aperitif (or two) we have dinner and chat the night away. C’est tres bon 🙂

Sunday 5 October 2025

BREAKFAST at the mill with Yvette, Jacques, Corrine and Jean Luc before everyone heads for the festival site.

Music starts at 12.30pm today and runs ’til 6pm. Today’s headliners – Little Bob Blues Bastards – had to cancel as 85-year-old Bob has lost his voice 🙁

There’s a silver lining in every cloud, though – the replacement is Elliott Murphy. We’ve never come across him before – a good pal of Bruce Springsteen who also write album liner notes for Lou Reed. He and his band were amazing!

Elliott’s fiddle player Melissa joins us for a few drinks and we hang out at the wrap party before heading back to the old mill. Been quite some weekend.

Saturday 4 October 2025

WE’RE up at a more reasonable hour today and have breakfast with Jean Luc, Corinne, Jacques and Yvette – nice to see them as they were part of the group from France that came to a Memorial Hall show in Scotland back in 2018.

I get a little work done then we take a drive to Chinon where we have a wander around and stop for some lunch.

Then it’s back to the old mill for before heading back to the festival site. Musical highlight today is Francesco Piu Groovy Brotherhood…as well as all the food and drink!

Friday 3 October 2025

WE SPEND the morning and afternoon catching up on some work.

I edit up a reel of vertical video clips from last night’s show and post it around my socials then we make our way to the festival site to load in.

It’s not the best weather, but all the outdoor areas are pretty well covered and the rain has stopped by the time I take to the stage.

There’s lots of familiar faces amongst the crowd and Margaret does well on the merch.

Once I’ve cleared my gear off the stage we go to eat – Marie Claude is running all the artist and crew catering and the food is nothing short of amazing.

We watched another couple of bands then head back to the old mill. What a night!

Thursday 2 October 2025

ANOTHER long lie and relaxed morning at the old mill.

It’s also another nice sunny day so after breakfast I take a walk around some of the wee roads round about.

We get some work done int he afternoon then make our way into town to set up for tonight’s show at Relais du Velors – a pre-festival ‘inauguration’ show.

The place is mobbed and we have a great evening.After the show Dominque presents me with a photo from a similar pre-festival show at the same venue (in 2017!) by photographer Laurent Leduc.

After we get tidied up we go to the festival site for some dinner then back to the old mill.

Wednesday 1 October 2025

WE HAVE a very long lie at the old mill then make some brunch before heading to the festival site in Beaumont for coffee with Dominique and all the festival volunteers who are working tirelessly to have everything ready for the weekend.

Dominique takes us to a wee venue nearby where I’m playing a special launch show for the festival tomorrow (Thursday) night . We have a wee recce, chat to the owner over another coffee then we go back to the mill.

I sit outside and noodle about on the guitar and come up with some wee bits that might make a future song then we do a livestream and have a wee wander around.

Later on we head back into town and join everyone at the festival site for dinner.

Tuesday 30 September 2025

WE’RE WOKEN at 4.45am (UK time) by music piped into our cabin. Jeez. Think it’s meant to give us a heads up that we have an hour to go before docking at Caen.

By the time we’ve come to, got ourselves sorted and I’ve found coffee we’re pretty much ready to go down to the car deck.

Once we’re not he road we stop at the first service station we find and fall asleep int eh car for nearly two hours! Then we go in and have some breakfast.

Messages on both our phones from Three inform us that the £25 spending cap I set up on our phones before we left to ensure our £2-a-day charge to access our UK calls/data/text allowance would run smoothly has been exceeded. I get on the chat with Three to try and find out what the fuck is going on and they’re pretty unhelpful saying that there’s nothing they can do about considering a refund ‘til my next bill. I’m a little but tetchy about it to say the least.

It looks like we’ve been charged £25 each for data used during a six-hour ferry crossing while we were asleep. Fuck off. To add insult to injury, if I hadn’t increased the spend cap in advance of travelling (as recommended by Three!) things wouldn’t have been anywhere near as bad. Also, no warning or notice from Three or any other service provider that passing through some kinda ‘no-man’s land’ would incur a mega charge. I’ll deal with this when the time comes.

Anyway, onward to Avoine and Beaumont en Véron where we rock up tp the festival site. Work is already well under way and went catch up with some of our local pals and have a coffee before Dominique takes us to the old watermill which will be home for the next ten days or so.

We chill for a while then head back to the festival site for drinks and dinner with the main crew…gonna be an exciting few days ahead…

Monday 29 September 2025

ALTHOUGH breakfast at the hotel finishes at 9.30am we don’t need to check out until midday. We’re in no huge hurry so have breakfast, get back to the room, get our stuff together and leave the hotel around 11am.

The drive to Portsmouth is uneventful with only a sandwich and toilet stop along the way.

The ferry is scheduled to leave at 11pm so we have some time to kill and end up visiting Nando’s for some dinner, then on to the ferry port where we sit in a queue for an hour or so before boarding.

Our wee cabin is fine and we chill for a while before some zzzz’s….the ferry gets into Caens at 5.45am so not gonna get much sleep!