Theatre in the Courtyard

In addition to the Tour de France, Pau hosted all sorts of activities to celebrate Bastille Day. On the 14th, they had all sorts of free concerts in the park, fireworks, movies played in "plein air", and best of all they had a play in the courtyard of the Chateau de Pau (picture on the right) on the 14th and the 15th.

It was a play by Moliere, Le Mariage Force (The Forced Marriage) and starred none other than Gerard Holtz, sports announcer of France 2, playing the lead role. It also happened to air live on television on the day that we went to see it. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the castle, we noticed there was a crowd around the entrance. The sign on the wall said that the play was by invitation only and that it was full for both nights.

As we waited to see what would happen, Ryan noticed a woman who often hosts students in her home there with a friend. The two are history professors at the university and the four of us began to talk. It seemed strange to us that it was advertised on all the brochures for the weekend's activities, but it never mentioned that it was by invitation only or that it was already full. As we spoke, the two professors began to talk animatedly with a woman who was letting people into the gate. It turns out that she was a former student of theirs and if there were empty spots, she guaranteed that we would be let in to see the show.

So we waited until the starting time of 9:30 came and went. The courtyard seemed to be filling up completely and we began to lose hope, but then at the last minute, they decided to let a few people in. Another man opened the gate and they told everyone to remain calm (apparently the crowd had gotten out of hand the night before and tried to push their way in to see the play) while he let a few people in. He had almost let too many people in and didn't see the woman trying to get us through the gate, when finally, she said "Hurry, let's go" and directed the two women to enter. They paused and pointed at us to ask if Ryan and I could come as well and they let us in, just before they closed the gate again! I was literally the last person to enter the gate.

We walked in and sat ourselves in the courtyard and noticed there were more chairs and were relieved to see that the others who were waiting were let in as well. There were six cameras posted around and one man who shot the audience for reactions. We're not sure if we made it on TV or not, because we didn't know it would be airing until after we were already inside. We should have called Olivier and asked him to tape it for us, but they had already told us we needed to turn off all cell phones.

The play was great and it turns out that the sports caster really can act. I managed to understand about 80% of it, and Ryan translated the rest so it was a really enjoyable evening. I've never done anything like it before so it was a pretty amazing experience. We finished up the evening at around 11:30 by having a glass of wine at a wine bar around the corner. Even though it was a Tuesday night, and quite late, there were still a whole bunch of people downtown sitting in restaurants and bars outside. Ryan said they must have all been there for the Tour de France and were enjoying the "jour de repos (rest day)" before heading off to follow the Tour to the next stop. We made it home by midnight, not bad for a Tuesday night!