The jazz festival that weathered a tornado then blew us away The festival is run entirely by volunteers as is much in the town. The mayor and councillors are unpaid, while the fire brigade, cinema and other facilities are run by volunteers. Over the four days of the festival, bands played at three venues. There were five free performances at the jazz village, two paid concerts on a specially constructed stage next to the jazz village, and the finale was a free jazz picnic in the park nearby. However a tornado swept through the town early on Saturday morning completely destroying the special stage, resulting in a change of venue for the Saturday night concert. The tornado also flattened two of the three tents in the jazz village, and played havoc with crops and trees throughout the area. The food served each evening was either from stalls in one of the tents or a four course meal specially prepared by Le St. Fortunat, the town's one-star Michelin restaurant. We opted for the latter which had a different menu each night. It cost 20 euros and included a carafe of the very good local wine. To our surprise the first three courses were served on the same plate! The music was brilliant. Most of the bands were local. We hadn't heard of any of them before. One thing that intrigued us about the music was that each song was sung in English. Is that an international convention in jazz? The band on the first night was Audrey & les faces B. She's a very ebullient character with a voice reminiscent of Eartha Kitt. Her band included an excellent pianist and a male guitarist who proved that men can multi-task. He played solos on a harmonica while also playing the guitar! On the Friday night the first band in the jazz village had a front line of tenor sax and vibraphone. It was followed by an excellent eight -piece band of Neuville de Poitou's own musicians. Afterwards we listened to the paid performance of another band from the front garden of our accomodation at La Roseraie, which conveniently was across the road from the venue. On Saturday the band at the jazz village played in similar vein to Django Reinhardt, while Pink Turtle, a band from Paris, was in the cinema because the main stage had been destroyed by the tornado. They played a selection of eighties pop numbers in a swing idiom, featuring trombone, trumpet, tenor sax, guitar and an amazing pianist. They entertained with a zany sense of fun. Two examples: towards the end of a really good sax solo, the drummer got up walked across the stage, and, as the sax player finished his solo, put one of his cymbals up behind the sax player's head like a halo. In another number, the pianist had to play two notes - 'ping pong' - every now and then on a child's xylophone. In between he crossed his arms and looked very bored. Then his one foot went off stage left between 'ping pongs'. He eventually pulled into a view a plate with a sandwich on it. He then proceeded to eat the sandwich between 'ping pongs'. The final concert on Sunday at the jazz picnic in the park was magical: tables under the trees, a hot day, an excellent picnic provided by our La Roseraie hosts, a girl in a white dress who danced non-stop to the music, and young children with their parents, some of whom also danced in front of the band. During the picnic, Duncan introduced us to Maurice Abitbol, the organiser of the festival. He was very welcoming and impressed that we had come from so far away. A jazz-rock band was the main band at the picnic with a second Dixie band wandering among the tables during the breaks. They announced that they only played for tables which looked sad. It's a long way from Cape Town to Neuville de Poitou, but it and its jazz festival exceeded our expectations. It was certainly worth the trip. We might even find ourselves back there again next year.