NEW: JUST ANNOUNCING NOW
THIS YEAR'S ONLY
BOB DYLAN DISCUSSION WEEKEND WITH MICHAEL GRAY
At His Home In South-West France:
Friday 15 to Sunday September 17!
MAX 6 PLACES AVAILABLE!
HOW TO BOOK & PRICE information is at the foot of the page, but if you want to book, start by e-mailing
michael@michaelgray.net
saying whether you want to come as an individual or a couple
Here is information about these weekends. If you would like to come to one in the future, please e-mail
michael@michaelgray.net
to be placed on the list of those to be given first chance of booking next time.
These weekends offer couples and/or individuals great food and
Bob Dylan Discussion with the pioneer of Dylan Studies, the
author of Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan,
The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia and Outtakes On Bob Dylan: Selected Writings 1967-2021.
Guests stay in an en-suite room at our home - an elegant 1870s
house 40-odd miles from the Pyrenees
and the Spanish border. The house lies on the edge of a small
village in deep and beautiful countryside in the Gers, the
département with cleaner air, fewer people and less traffic than
anywhere in France.
It goes like this:
- Arrive for a tea-time welcome & drink on Friday
- Enjoy a large evening meal and then the first of two wide-ranging discussions about Dylan's work, with plenty of audio on vinyl and CD
- Spend the night in your en-suite room overlooking countryside
- Join us for a generous continental breakfast on Saturday morning and have a day free to explore the area and/or relax in our garden and pool
- Re-convene for further tea-time drinks, another great evening meal and the second Bob Dylan Discussion on the Saturday evening
- Stay a second night in your guest room and then have a relaxed Sunday breakfast before leaving us later that morning.
HOW TO GET HERE is a bit further down this page
HOW TO BOOK & PRICE information is at the foot of the page, but if you want to book, start by e-mailing to
michael@michaelgray.net
saying whether you want to come as an individual or a couple
DETAILS:
The maximum number of places we ever offer is for 6
(3 couples or up to 4 individual guests).
There are two double rooms and one twin room. Each room is en suite.
Meals, with accompanying good local wines, are provided by food writer Sarah Beattie and taken communally, outside on the terrace whenever possible. The weather is warm and sunny a good deal of the time.
And if the weather should include a sudden thunderstorm, well, that's not bad here either:
The after-dinner sessions on Dylan’s work take place in the large sitting-room, where relevant vinyl and CDs from Michael’s collection can be played, again with accompanying good local wine.
Guests can choose specific topics, if they wish, such as
Rough & Rowdy Ways
Bob Dylan's Cutting Edges
His Nobel Prize for Literature
Why All Those Sinatra-Type Songs?
Dylan & the Blues
Dylan & Rock’n’roll
Dylan's Use of the Bible
Plagiarism
Dylan & Literary Culture
Dylan On Tour Young & Old
Bootlegs...
though on previous weekends, often a great wide-ranging discussion on the first evening tends to be followed by a second evening on which people also want to spend time just discovering tracks they don't have at home, listening to them together and enjoying the chance to talk Dylan with new friends as well as with Michael.
Included:
Two nights’ en suite accommodation, two breakfasts and two full evening meals; quality local wines; two small-group Dylan Discussions led by Michael Gray.
Guests are also welcome to use the garden and sizeable swimming pool.
Not included:
Flights; transport to & from airports; lunches; travel insurance.
Please note:
It is a non-smoking house, though guests are welcome to smoke in the garden; also that the household includes a dog (Iris, a young & enthusiastic Griffon Beagle cross), though she is not allowed upstairs.
Recommended:
Car-hire is recommended to utilise free time for local exploration, though transport to and from the airports can be arranged through us instead, and a local taxi is generally available for Saturday exploration. (Car-hire is the less expensive option and gives maximum flexibility.)
Getting here:
For flights, the nearest airports are Lourdes-Tarbes, Pau, Toulouse. By far the largest of these is Toulouse, which receives flights from Europe and North America.
If you're flying from Britain, easyJet fly Gatwick-Toulouse and Bristol-Toulouse but not every day or necessarily at workable times; BA sometimes has bargain flights Heathrow-Toulouse (and there are several flights daily); Ryanair flies from Stansted to Lourdes-Tarbes (50 minutes from the house) but not daily and now also flies to Toulouse from Stansted or Edinburgh.
If you're flying in from North America or another long-haul starting-point, the frequent daily onward BA flights Heathrow-Toulouse can be especially convenient. If you hire a car from Toulouse it takes approx. 90 minutes to reach the house.
There are also cheap flights from all over Europe to Paris Orly, which offers frequent flights to Lourdes-Tarbes, the closest airport to our house, and which has car hire available. From this airport it takes an hour to the house.
It's also very possible to travel by train from anywhere in Europe (by TGV or Inter-City to Tarbes or Toulouse
or by car (via tunnel/ferry from the UK).
FEEDBACK FROM OUR PREVIOUS GUESTS:
" Thank you both for the terrific weekend you laid on for us all. It was truly delightful: great hospitality and excellent company in spectacular surroundings. A perfect recipe, to match your own, Sarah! I found the Dylan discussions informative, entertaining and very enjoyable. I learned a lot; especially how much I don’t know!"
Mark
"No words adequately express my enjoyment of the weekend nor my gratitude for your endless generosity with conversation and music, food and wine. Many, many thanks to you both for sharing your home, your erudition and your cuisine."
Max
"This was a lovely spot for a relaxing weekend, and Sarah was the perfect hostess, producing fantastic food. The conversation flowed very easily and ranged far and wide. Michael chaired the discussions well; he was also very articulate, a clear thinker and a good listener, and the pleasant surroundings made the weekend even more enjoyable. It was all I'd hoped for and more."
Jonathan and Clare
"We want to thank you for hosting the Weekend in your home. It was a unique experience, and we would very much welcome the opportunity to attend one of your Bob talk events... We would even make a special trip!"
Margot and Colin
"We appreciated the weekend so much. Thank you so much for your generous hospitality."
Petter and Vigdis
"We really enjoyed it, thanks to both of you. The setting was wonderful (as was the weather), the food sublime, and the discussions were great."
Martin and Michele
"A special thank you for a gem of a weekend. Wonderful food, warm hospitality and an amazing giving of knowledge."
Jill and Louise
"We thoroughly enjoyed our visit in every respect and we offer our thanks to your good self and to Sarah for making our stay so
memorable."
Dave and Irene
"Thank you again for this excellent weekend. Sarah's cooking was brilliant and both Dylan Evenings are engraved in my mind. It was an unforgettable weekend. It's sometimes so easily said or written, but it really, really was. We're wallowing in pleasure. May you stay forever young."
Lukas and Saskia
"Thank you so very much. Everything was just perfect, Sarah's fantastic food and the great new insights into Bob Dylan's life gained through Michael's incredible knowledge which he so enthusiastically shared with his guests. I really loved the chosen tracks too, how different they are from the ones on commercial CDs..."
Marion
"Many thanks from the three of us for a great weekend. Lovely food and wine (our thanks to Sarah of course) and terrific conversation. All highly recommended!"
James
"I look back at a wonderful weekend. Thank you very much for your hospitality and inspiring sessions. Thanks too to Sarah for the delicious meals."
Robert
"Michael, we had a wonderful time and it was a privilege to spend some time with the two of you."
Irwin & Erica
"The house is in a beautiful part of France, and the food cooked and served by Michael's wife Sarah is absolutely outstanding, as is the wine ! It's by no means all about Bob, and we met some very interesting guests, but it was wonderful to have the opportunity to chat with other people who are equally enthralled by Bob's work, and to hear at first hand Michael's extensive knowledge of Dylan's work. A truly marvellous weekend!!"
Martin
"Thank you to both you and Sarah for a lovely weekend: we both enjoyed it immensely."
Catherine
"Can I just thank you once again for the weekend? We both had a fantastic time. Please pass on our thanks to Sarah as well, not least for her truly outstanding cooking."
Daniel & Ruth
"You made me and everyone feel very welcome and I couldn't really think of anything to improve the weekend. The food was divine and it was great to be able to indulge our Bob Dylan interest (I'm avoiding using the word obsession!) in an unfettered way!"
Ian
PRICES:
£450 per single person, or £699 per couple sharing a room.
All prices are in pounds sterling; conversion from other currencies will be made at the rate applicable on the day, as determined by PayPal or your credit card company
HOW TO BOOK:
Send an e-mail enquiry to michael@michaelgray.net giving your name and e-mail address, and how many people you want to book for. You will then be invoiced by e-mail for a 50% deposit. This will secure your booking. The other 50% is to be paid 30 days before your arrival.
Payments are made securely, using PayPal or any credit/debit card.
_____________
If you have any questions about any of the above, please e-mail michael@michaelgray.net