Concert in Bains-les-Bains

Firstly: the town we performed in is a tiny place even more in the countryside than Damelevieres, the exceptionally green place I showed pictures of here.  It's called Bains-les-Bains, which is a ridiculous name meaning "Baths the Baths."  Think a place like Bath, England, where historically people would go to "take water" from the springs there for their supposed healing powers.  It was an hour and a half bus ride from Damelevieres, which is a 15 minute train ride from Nancy, the biggest town in the area.

The small church where we actually performed was in fact just outside that town in an old industrial/tin manufacturing park/arboretum from the 18th century.  It was actually pretty cool, but I couldn't find out much about it despite wandering around and inquiring with people at random. 

It turned out that it was the people who now take care of the site who invited us to sing for part of a concert series at the church.  They live in the old "overseer's" place (I put that in quotes because I don't know what the actual title was), which was really interesting because it was a mix of old industrial stuff and modern house stuff.  They had two very fluffy, very sweet dogs. 

Some shots of the old factory area, which is now possibly a tour site but I'm not sure.

I'm guessing that the church on site was for the workers, which makes me in turn think it couldn't have been a very large industrial site.  The church was teeny, and even the people who came for the concert did not all have seats - some were even standing just outside the doors because there was no more room to come in.

Afterwards the hosts offered us a customary drink.  The room was down in the cellar (looked more like a dungeon) of the main house part, which looked and felt very old

So, back to Damelevieres quickly before I wrap up the Lorraine entries.   Due to some communication errors there was no one around to get me at the little train station in this little town when I arrived the day before the concert.  But since it is indeed little I was able to walk to my friend's house.  She directed me solely based on landmarks (the bridge, the church, the big field).

Here is my walk, in brief.

This graffiti on the bridge is in support of the French national soccer team (Les Bleu - the Blue[s], the team)

No clue what this is.  Maybe you can tell, but it might be too small: it's a couple pools of water, with a faucet at one end.  It reminds me of old Roman baths but it's too small and new and anyway, Romans weren't in this area.

Into the town!  It used to be a major railway stop, which is why it has those trains.

The only church in town is also the mossiest one I've come across.

And finally I got to the field, as shown in the last post on the town, which is right next to where they live.  It really is a charming place.