I got back about 9.30pm last night having got onto the TGV at Avignon about 2.20pm - you have to add in an hour because of the time difference between the two countries. The Avignon Festival is under way and so the streets are filled with performers trying to attract bookings for their particular performance - a bit like Edinburgh. Its funny that the Avignon and Aix festivals overlap - but that's how it is. On Thursday we had lunch with Cathie Bell and her bf by the riverside at an attractive town called Isle sur la Sorgue as it was their day off from singing in the opera chorus at the Aix Festival. Then we went onto the source of the Sorgue - a massive spring at the base of a huge limestone cliff and a spot beloved of Petrarch.

Petrarch is also said to have completed the first ascent of a mountain for humanistic reasons in Western Civilisation - the mountain in question is Mont Ventoux which is on the north side of the Vaucluse plateau. Its 6000 feet or so but not very steep - you can drive to the top if you wish but we didn't preferring to drive through the Nesque gorge which is totally spectacular - absolute vertigo. Two eagles were spotted flying over the gorge - but unfortunately I was looking the other way. This was on the 14th of July which is of course a French public holiday. It didnt seem to make much difference to Sault - a small town/large village we visited in the lavender fields about 30km north of where we stayed in St Saturnin sur Apt.

You woke every morning and stared across the valley to the Luberon Mountains to the south - we were on the south edge of the Vauclose plateau about five minutes walk from the centre of the village - close enough for someone to go off and get fresh bread for breakfast.

I didnt quite finish the history of Noise Music - Henry Cow recieved a strong endorsement by the author besides the Japanese pioneers and Merzbow.