We are having coffee with a friend in Vancouver; sitting outside at our regular haunt putting the world to rights as usual. In some ways, this feels like a lot of words on a page and high-level policy. On the ground, what is the value proposition? I pass the time of day with other hikers: why do they come?
Consistently, the response is that they love the countryside, the opportunity to explore the area with other people with similar interests. Often they are people who live in Bergerac, the local main town, and sometimes they have recently retired there after a career in Paris or overseas.
They want to connect with the soil, the trees, the birds, the mushrooms, the wild flowers; these things are important to them. At the end of each hike, there is an opportunity to enjoy refreshment with others.
On offer is a glass of local wine or juice and a savoury biscuit. At the end of the hike: enjoying a cup of friendship. These are some of my favourite composers. Another example is a concert of young talented musicians from the Conservatoire de Bergerac. In this instance, two young guitarists.
On the programme, which I have shown here, I circled the pieces I particularly enjoyed. I loved the repetoire, the imagination and the skill of these two young people. We stand, smile and chat in the warm, early evening sunshine outside the church at Puyguilhem in the Commune of Thenac from where it is possible to see in the distance where the years began and in another direction where it ended.
