Museum Night

Europe has a very nice event each year, where museums are open to the public, free of charge, and often with a series of "extras," such as art workshops, concerts, or wandering musicians.

This year, we went to a couple of museums in Sète.
We started with the Sea Museum - there was supposed to be a wandering group playing and singing sea chanties. We were both looking forward to that, but after an hour, there were still no hints of music in the air. We still had a nice (and educational) time.
There were a *lot* of boat models, some showing the construction and interior layout

When I saw these knots, I knew I needed a picture!

There was an entire section on Les Joutes, or water jousting. These are models of the boats used - each team rows toward the other, while one jouster stands on the forward platform. Each jouster has a heavy wooden shield and a long lance tipped by a metal crown. The two teams collide, and the winning jouster causes the other to fall into the water (while the winner remains on his platform, and in control of his balance).

These are some of the costumes worn by jousters over the centuries

You can see just how damaging the impact can be

Next, we headed to the Espace Brassens to catch a concert by a fellow who sang covers of songs by Georges Brassens, an extremely popular son of Sète. This museum is very close to home; we regularly pass by, and had been wondering what it was like. As the concert was in the front lobby, we still haven't seen it!

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The official agenda: https://icisete.fr/jv_events/nuit-des-musees-sete-2017/
The big celebration of jousting in Sète is La Fête de la Saint Louis - it last for a week in August: http://en.tourisme-sete.com/the-saint-louis-day-sete.html