Giza (Egypt) (AFP)
The bagad of Lann Bihoué, a musical group from the French Navy, gave an unprecedented concert on Wednesday in front of the pyramids of Guizeh on the occasion of its only outing abroad in 2020 due to the coronavirus.
The traditional Breton music group of about thirty musicians, ambassador of the French Navy, arrived in Egypt on Tuesday evening on the occasion of the commemorations of the battle of El-Alamein (October-November 1942), near Alexandria (North).
"We are here for the influence of the Navy", explained to AFP the main master Pascal Olivier, the "Penn-bagad", at the same time manager, logistician and director of training.
Lann Bihoué's bagad ordinarily makes dozens of trips each year for concerts, in France and abroad.
But the group formed in 1952 had never yet visited Egypt.
The Egyptian tour will be the "only outing abroad that we will have made this year because of the Covid", indicated the Penn-bagad.
"We're not the most to be pitied because we're still soldiers, so we always have work to do even if we don't perform much. But it's true that it's nice to be able to go out for a bit, show what we are doing. knows how to do ", confided on his side Jérôme Allanic, 24 years old, the" Penn-soner "or conductor of the group.
"There are 4,000 years of history that contemplate us here so obviously, it's quite magical!", He added.
Unique professional bagad, Lann Bihoué is composed of four types of instruments or desks: highland bagpipe (10), bombarde (12), snare drum (5) and percussion (3).
In front of the Pyramids of Giza, the group performed alongside an Egyptian military band, also equipped with bagpipes.
The French National Navy regularly carries out exercises with the Egyptian Navy.
The two fleets have identical equipment.
France sold two projection and command buildings (BPC) in Cairo in 2015 for around 950 million euros, thanks to Saudi funding.
© 2020 AFP