Rural areas of France provide wonderful summer holidays, and Normandy is no different. Basse Copette is a small, rural hamlet in the Bresle Valley of Upper Normandy. There are only 6 residences, and very much off the beaten track. What it lacks in on-the-door-step attractions it more than amply makes up for in rural charm. We are close to some great attractions (Monet’s Garden in Giverny), and others make for a great day out (Paris, Disneyland), but there really is something unbeatable about being in France profonde. For example, each year from the the end of spring to the beginning of autumn most Communes and bigger villages host their own particular summer festival. And then there are the rather unique and often quirky ways of celebrating national events. These add a wonderful and often unexpected quality to a holiday.

Summer Festivals usually last all weekend, starting Saturday and often end late on Sunday night with an amazing firework display. The exact make up of these festivals varies from commune to commune, but in this area of France they usually involve a brocante (a car boot sale), where you can usually pick up some interesting things, a dinner-dance of some sort or another on Saturday night, a bike race or other sporting activity, a procession of drum majorettes, brass band and floats through the village.

These festivals are usually held over the same weekend each year. For Basse Copette there are three summer festivals of note, one for the village of Bouafles over the last weekend of June, one for the village of Campneuseville over the 3 weekend in August, and our Commune’s festival over the second weekend of September (2009, it will be 12 and 13 September). Each of these villages is just over a mile away and provide great local colour for any stay at Basse Copette.

One of my favourite events in the celebration of Bastille day. It is one of those rare events during the year when our Commune’s brass band comes out in all its glory! The band gets on the back of a trailer, which is pulled by a tractor. They go from village to village in the Commune playing their rather limited but charming repertoire. Each village provides some drink and nibbles and we enjoy the brief presence of the brass band, before it moves on to the next village, and each others company. It is the one time in the year when all the villagers of Basse Copette come together as a village to enjoy a great summers evening. And what has been a great delight for me, is how welcome the villagers have made the guests staying with me feel. They are at Basse Copette, why should they not be part of it – rural hospitality at its best!