Ginestas, Swing Easy & L’Anais Restaurant

Our family trekked the 20 minutes to Ginestas a quaint village to see our friend’s band, Swing Easy play. We know Sammy and Mel though choir and wanted to watch their performance at Restaurant L’Anais.

We were surprised to find a traditional building with a hand painted mural on the inside wall as the location of the restaurant. The perfect setting for the night’s concert. The outside courtyard led you to washrooms where you saw the twinkling star filled night sky. Every corner of the restaurant has charm. The entrance to the restaurant has a huge terrace set up with tables and chairs ready for guests.

The band was set up in the outside corner to make the best of the warm summer night. Southern France has beautiful evenings and many people start to get moving after the sun goes down.

The strong rhythmic groove of Swing Easy mixed with the sweet raspy vocals and the crooner tones of jazz and swing, made a velvety sound- simply sublime for a relaxing evening after a hard days work. Alfonz and Adrian spent the day working on the pool landscape again and were exhausted. It didn’t take much to convince them to make the trip to see Sammy and her band play. I did promise wine.

The stand up base, the electric piano, the sax and clarinet and the two female singers made up the band that played the toe tapping tunes until 22:30. Both girls can sing, and their voices complimented each others nicely.

The sun was still shining bright around 20:30 when we arrived. We ordered ice cream all around and a carafe of rose wine for the three of us. We watched the sun fade away with the rose and the melting desert, as we heard some familiar tunes like: Blue Moon, Time after Time done to a cool Jazz arrangement that made me want to join in and even a special request for Mr. Sandman for a birthday girl. The list goes on, and many we knew the words too.

We watched mouth-watering food pass by and with the entertainment and great prices, this restaurant has a winning combination for success. The place had no outdoor seats left, and offered a fixed menu for 20/Euros while the band played. Inside the restaurant people filled the seats on either side of the dance floor and the waitresses literally ran across the floor to get everyone fed on time.

I couldn’t resist their in house Crème Brulee, a favourite I haven’t had since Canada. The kids creamy ice cream was made locally and once it arrived even Alfonz and Adrian had to order some for themselves. After treats, the kids made their way around to meet the restaurant’s nearly blind cat and a patron’s dog. They made their rounds saying hello to the other choir members they recognized from Capestang.

Sammy from choir sure knew how to connect with the crowd as she showed her stuff. She is a warm-hearted person and jovial Mel, her husband, played base and once Swing Easy got swinging, the folks started to dance and sway to the music.

Angelina and Daniel joined in the fun, got up on the indoor stage and pretended to be the amusement for the evening, as kids do. Each person that glanced their way had a giant smile pasted on their face.

Thank-you to the band for such a nice evening full of ambiance and great tunes to unwind to. Alfonz said, ‘Best night in France!’ He digs Jazz.

If you are in the Capestang area and would like to check out my friend’s band, here are their next local gigs!

4th August see us at L’Arbousier, Homps, Reservation 0468 911124
Domaine Saint Michel Archange in Bize  is on the 24th August – Reservations 04 68 46 28 35

That’s Hamori!