THE BEST BASTILLE DAY EVER

The Big Salad

We sat down to have our dinner. Tim had brought a selection of cheeses and Doug and Mary had brought a white wine from their Basque travels. As we were digging in to the salad we heard the sound of a marching band coming up our street. We abandoned dinner in mid-salad and went out to see what was happening. The mayor, M. Persin was leading a marching band up the street. He was waving and shaking hands and encouraging everyone to come out and join the parade. We did though we didn't go far before the parade stopped in front of the mairie. The mayor started to pass out candle-lit lanterns to all the children. Then we started up again, marching down to the edge of Montsoreau then back along the Loire to the Place de Mail in the village.


Mary and Doug

After the excitement of the parade we went back to finish our meal: roast chicken and vegetables, ratatouille, haricots and lots more wine. As we were finishing up we started to hear the sound of the fireworks. We went across the street, glasses of wine in hand, to a viewing platform in the château. The fireworks were being set off from an island in the Loire so we had a very good view. That lasted for about 20 minutes with a big grand finale booming through the valley.

Milling about outside the mairie as the mayor hands out lanterns to the children.

By the time we got to the dessert course (little pastries from Aux Pain de Diane bakery) we were pretty tired. Coffee and a round of épine dessert wine revived us enough to make us go down to the center for the bal populaire. By that time, however, there were very few people left dancing, mostly young girls. When the band struck up "Just a Gigolo" we knew it was time to call it a day. We left Doug and Mary, young things that they are, to dance the rest of the night away while we headed home to our beds.