Hail Caesar

I had a visit today from Lauren, a representative of the Chamber of Commerce for Carcassonne. He spoke very good English - much better than my French - and explained what the OCC (for short) was doing in the town, the network that they were setting up and the benefits that were available if I was to join them.

He also explained that the OCC is completely separate from the Mairie and the Conseil General and the Office du Tourisme - all of which are completely different civil service entities within the French governmental framework, with their own funding and objectives and that a lot of his job is spent dealing with the politics of a large number of different organisations all trying to achieve the same objective. Well, when 25% of the workforce is involved in the civil service, there is bound to be an element of overlap and politics.

To be fair to Lauren he stressed that the Mairie is working very hard with the OCC to find common ground in promoting the Bastide town as a destination (latest figures suggest four million tourists visit the Cite and only fifty thousand tourists come into the Bastide) - an alarming difference if the numbers are correct - and my 4 visitors a week when I am full isn't going to make that much difference - so anything that the OCC and anyone else can do to promote the Bastide has to be welcomed and I think I have to be part of that effort because I am bringing people directly into the old town simply because of where I am located.

He is going to send me some information about what they can do for me, especially in relation to their marketing. If I think it is right I will join.

In the meantime gossip about the July Festival continues to be leaked out piecemeal ahead of the official announcement of the programme next week. ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Massive Attack and today Diana Ross - apparently she is only doing three shows in France on her world tour and they are Paris, Monte Carlo and here - well done Carcassonne is all I can say. She may be an old over the top diva but she is a legend and my many gay friends will probably be queuing around the block when the tickets go on sale. After me, darlings - I think this is one concert I probably should make an effort to go to - ooh, I feel a special offer coming on!

After years of criticising Debrah for parking herself in front of the TV watching back to back episodes of ER and the 4400 and Scrubs and whatever other shite American drama comes along - I have to confess that I have watched the whole of the first series of Rome in two evenings and am completely hooked by it and and am distraught that I haven't got the second series to hand because I want to watch it NOW.

Ridiculously, the box set has been sat on my desk for about six months since Gary lent it to me and I have only just got round to watching it - in fact I stayed in to watch Rome instead of going out to watch Man Utd v Roma - that says it all in a neat juxtaposition sort of way.

So, my lovely, when you read this, I apologise for all those sarcastic comments about ER.

It is not so different really - a lot of shouting, a lot of blood, a lot of emotion, a lot of lives turning on a moment, a lot of death, a lot of hope - the biggest difference was probably the amount of sex - not really allowed to show that on American prime time, just imply it, whilst in Rome we had James Purefoy standing naked, arms outstretched, whilst water was thrown over him by the bucket load and any number of nubile women with no clothes on.

I know which I prefer.