Joyeux 14 juillet to everyone.
The weather here in the Medoc is beautiful so we’re spending most of today outdoors but will try to catch a bit of the defile in Paris on TV at some point.
Whatever you’re doing and however you’re celebrating la fête nationale I hope you have a great day.
Cheers @Gareth, you too. I’ll be in my garage/workshop making a chunky oak coffee table - just another day really.
The village is quiet… but the TV’s will be on in most households judging by what they were saying last night …
We had a lovely soirée organised by Cd Fetes last night… no fireworks… and ended around 11pm…
I did hear some just before midnight… but a long way away…
Our village (and several others locally) celebrate by holding a vide grenier outside the marie.
Now it’s my favourite… the Foreign Legion… wonderful guys… they’d frighten anyone without touching 'em…
Let’s face it… if a bearded giant, wearing leather apron and waving a huge axe… is coming towards me… I’m going to run… the other way… like mad… 
We wztched some 9n France 24, but were very disappointed by the coverage. No information on who was parading at all.
We are having a Mechoui for the commune tomorrow.
I am making a tarte citron, Paul Bocuse’s recipe.
TF1 is (in my opinion) much better at this sort of reporting… watch the whole thing, as it happens… and all sections identified and explained… plus I can pause it and revisit later…
marvellous.
Having pioneers is a tradition that our Canadian cousins still uphold.
CAF Assault Pioneers: basically heavily armed lumberjacks.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is dire.
Lovely défilé 
Yep… it certainly was. 
We watched the défilé on France 2. Quite good coverage by the commentators, plus a caption on the screen for each group marching down the Champs. But I would have liked more close shots of each group, to appreciate their uniforms etc. and to see the police dogs and the horses. The main camera was rather too high in the air.
For me, this is the beauty of TF1 Info… they do tell you what’s going-on… with long shots, close-ups… etc… and I can stop and start… or skip a bit… as I choose…
Some of it had me in tears eg the disabled man struggling to get out of his wheelchair for the National Anthem…
I think I caught that part too. They were a member of the Resistance. It was moving when Macron and Mohdi shook their hand and also greeted a lady who’s 101 years old (funnily enough today would’ve been my grandmother’s birthday and she would’ve been 102, so seeing that lady reminded me enormously of my Nan)
well done TF1, we watched it in England and it brought us both to tears. Magnificent!!!
didn’t get to watch the Concert de Paris last night… will be visiting Replay to enjoy that, later on today…
Fireworks went off last night, just before midnight (as per the previous night), somewhere just over the horizon, but from a different direction … the bangs, booms etc went on for nearly 30 mins so it will have been an expensive extravagance.
Early evening, I phoned a couple of elderly pals, each lives alone… and each spent the day staying indoors to keep cool, watching the defilé and wearing as little clothing as possible (each giggled in telling me that… ). wonderful to be young at heart, even in one’s nineties…
These lovely ladies never cease to make me smile…
Some decent music imo Stella. Highlight for me was the Rachmaninov piano piece followed by the Saint Saens Barcarolle. Some pleasant operatic pieces but I would have appreciated more French music on such an auspicious day.
We’ll be watching the concert at lunchime… with our meal on trays… (very decadent 
)
I’ll give my thoughts later, after the obligatory siesta…
