I've been in France the past week or so, chuntering along to Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, doing the clappy thing during Men of Harlech and drinking lots of wine.
Yep, I've been to Bordeaux and Lens (via La Rochelle, Chinon and Douriez) supporting Wales at Euro 2016, seeing the A roads and eating bread. It was pretty ace, ticking my boozy, foody and sporty boxes though there was no great musical moment.
There was no Belgium Half-time event with the slightly asinine and sterile stadium experience of David Guetta and kids running around with massive flags. In the car was Prince, Fleetwood Mac and The Cars. A brief foray into French radio uncovered some dub reggae but as it soundtracked our first Sat Nav boo-boo, we decided to stick to CDs for good luck.
The only thing that came close was when I first stepped out of the car in Bordeaux. We were staying near the centre, in a residential complex. Wandering around wondering how to get in, I thought I was going slightly mad as I heard La Ritournelle by Sebastian Tellier floating through the air.
Turns out there was some sort of school fete or party down the road and they chose a bit of cinematic and emotionally charged French downtempo pop as the perfect soundtrack to get dem kids pumped.
La Ritournelle will always be a bit special to me, helping me through a tough time after dropping out of uni, along the same lines as the Dab Hands remix of Satellite of Love by Lou Reed. Unexpectedly hearing it again at such a time, in such a location, kind of threw me. C'est la vie.
Yep, I've been to Bordeaux and Lens (via La Rochelle, Chinon and Douriez) supporting Wales at Euro 2016, seeing the A roads and eating bread. It was pretty ace, ticking my boozy, foody and sporty boxes though there was no great musical moment.
There was no Belgium Half-time event with the slightly asinine and sterile stadium experience of David Guetta and kids running around with massive flags. In the car was Prince, Fleetwood Mac and The Cars. A brief foray into French radio uncovered some dub reggae but as it soundtracked our first Sat Nav boo-boo, we decided to stick to CDs for good luck.
The only thing that came close was when I first stepped out of the car in Bordeaux. We were staying near the centre, in a residential complex. Wandering around wondering how to get in, I thought I was going slightly mad as I heard La Ritournelle by Sebastian Tellier floating through the air.
La Ritournelle will always be a bit special to me, helping me through a tough time after dropping out of uni, along the same lines as the Dab Hands remix of Satellite of Love by Lou Reed. Unexpectedly hearing it again at such a time, in such a location, kind of threw me. C'est la vie.
