In addition to their passion for hunting the good people of Tarascon had another passion, which was for drawing-room ballads.

The number of ballads which were sung in this part of the world passed all belief.

All the old sentimental songs, yellowing in ancient cardboard boxes, could be found in Tarascon alive and flourishing.

Each family had its own ballad and in the town this was well understood.

One knew, for example, that for Bezuquet the chemist it was:-"Thou pale star whom I adore." For the gunsmith Costecalde:-"Come with me to the forest glade." For the Town Clark:--"If I was invisible, no one would see me." (a comic song) Two or three times a week people would gather in one house or another and sing, and the remarkable thing is that the songs were always the same.