We have a great parade and fireworks over the Port du Canalon the Friday night but just checked the forecast and is due for heavy rain tomorrow night so it will probably be cancelled :-(
Kids will be super disappointed as it is not often they are allowed to stay up past 8pm and if it is cancelled they will be in bed at the regular time.
Jealous, Mel. Just checked on the map because we're in 87 but it's probably a 2 hour drive each way for us.
Partying and watching the Fireworks.....Eating Moules et Frites cooked in giant bonfires in our beautiful village in Rancon, Haute Vienne. Dept 87. Always a brilliant night when the village hosts the giant party night which everyone from around attends....Eating, Drinking and being Merry !!
Oh knobs - I sooooooooo would drive down for a day out and roll around laughing at your in your kilt (bet it looks cool actually) but my mum, stepdad, sister and niece are all over first week of August.
Sorry to spoil a party BUT if any of you are in the neighbourhood of Calès between Bergerac and Sarlat (or Lalinde and Le Buisson if you know the area) on 5 August there is a Fête de l'ancien that really is quite different to most others I have seen. Yours truly will be there wearing the garment that was featured in the opening scene of the film Un jour mon père viendra, namely the kilt complete with the bum therein that the camera recorded. So, look out for a small, bekilted person and say, 'Oi, you're that bloke on SFN'!
I cannot find a single thing happening in Oradour-Sur-Vayres this weekend, despite the bunting. I think perhaps they're saving themselves for the huge festival that starts on the 27th. If anyone's interested in that (4 days of shenanigans with approximately 40,000 attendees) am posting details in the 'Limousin' group.
p.s. Brian - superb idea. I have several members of Orange I would like to nominate.
We visited Oradour sur Glane this year on our way back from the Dordogne...it was sunny all the way until we entered Oradour when it became grey and cloudy!!! It suited the atmosphere but I was impressed at how they have kept the village and the exhibition centre. Very sad indeed. On a cheerier note there is just fireworks here at St Gilles Croix de Vie, dont know of anything else??!!
In Le Lonzac,Correze we are attending our Sapeurs Pompiers' giant paella & ball tomorrow night (Friday the 13th!)when it invariably rains,but we always have a fantastic time.The band ,who play every year, are excellent & dancing goes on 'til 4 or 5 a.m.Bastille Day we go to the local donkey fair & spend hours umming & aahing about whether to purchase a couple of the gorgeous animals! One day.......!
Normally we have the Fete de Pompier on the night before but I guess even the Pompiers are weary of Friday the 13th so they are having it on Saturday where they cook up the best steaks EVER at Sauveterre de Bearne , plus the cheapest ( but good ) wine . Then the music kicks in about 11 with a break at midnight for the fireworks and then dancing to dawn , or until the gendarmes stop manning the roundabout !!!
Guillotine time again, I think we will line up all Orange, EDF, ERDF and a few other entire personnels and let Madame do her job as back then in 1789...
Sian - it's good to meet someone else with a similar connection. The nearest I've been to Normandy and the Beaches was whilst driving down from Caen (or it might have been Cherbourg) years ago, and just talking about going there made my eyes well up. I have been to Ypres though, and saw all the war graves, in straight lines, in a very military fashion - it's just so terribly sad.
We were gooing to a friend's barbecue, but that has been postponed as the forecast is for rain.
I am going to the huge brocante in Sivignon, out next village to try and find a few 'french' looking things for the gite.
The biggest event near us is in Draguignan with a major parade, speeches and awarding of medals. The French artillery are based in Draguignan so plenty of tanks, big guns and marching soldiers all topped off with a very large contingent of Sapeurs-Pompiers and various law enforcement agencies. In past years there's even been a fly past by Mirages (I think that's what they are). This year however we are eschewing these heady heights of sophistication and popping down the road to Les Arcs-sur-Argens for the fireworks and maybe off to Lorgues afterwards for a nightcap.
I'll be writing and working on my blog (24/7 in France) and then will check out the celebration and fireworks in Nice!
Hi Chris - to read about Oradour-sur-Glane is poignant for me because I was born on that day, 10 June 1944. I went there on the 61st anniversary (and my 61st birthday to boot) on 10 June 2005, and my eyes filled with tears when I saw the bullet holes in the Church (and I'm not even religious). To have gone there on its 60th anniversary was impossible, as that was the day I took occupation of my house here in Deux Sevres.
Not sure what my village is doing this year, but in previous years it's just been a whole day of feasting and drinking, culminating in boules and then fireworks. It really is a small hamlet, with not even a bar! However, I'm off to La Rochelle to pick up my old schoolfriend so it'll be too late to join in by the time we get back, except perhaps for the fireworks!
No, Bastille Day when the fortress prison was stormed, following which a lot of people lost their heads.
Are you referring to Oradour-sur-Glane? The Anniversary of the massacre and destruction of that village is 10th June (1944 being the year).
Should add that the parade of flaming torches is accompanied by the band of the Sapeurs-Pompiers and is the biggest fire hazard imaginable - health and safety be damned! :D
Here in St-Valery-sur-Somme a parade of flaming torches (everyone carries one, the kids have paper lanterns on sticks with a tealight inside) winds its way through the medieval old town on the night of 13 July, starting at 10:30pm and ending up the square by the bay at about 11:30, at which point the live music and dancing go on into the small hours. Then everyone has a bit of a rest and it all kicks off again at 7pm on the 14th with a communal supper of moules-frites in the square, with more music and dancing. Then at 11pm there is a wonderful firework display (plus you can watch the same going on at Le Crotoy on the far side of the bay, I think the two towns try to outdo one another!) and then more music and dancing! The only fête that matches it in scale is the Fête de la Mer in early August. Great fun, would not miss either for the world!