Day 1844 (Sunday) 26th June 2022

We went to the fete last night as planned and it was very pleasant and quaint but it went on a bit and we spent a lot of time waiting around. I’m really glad we went but we won’t be going to the one in Beaulieu on Wednesday.

We had a glass of rose in a bar very close to the church and people watched for a while – it was very entertaining.

We watched the choir assembling in their costumes.

We left the bar and joined the onlookers as the procession left the church – the vicar was such a happy looking chap.

This was followed by Saint Pierre

Enjoy this short video

We went ahead of the procession as it was going very slowly and sat on the seawall where the burning of the boat was going to take place and this was the boat.

The procession went past the boat so we followed it again into a park area and were entertained by the choir.

There was free food and soft drinks but the queues were miles long.

The vicar, the statue and a number of other people boarded a boat and went out to sea for a while to lay a wreath commemorating all the people who have lost their lives at sea. When we saw the boat coming back we went back to our original spot where the pointus came back after escorting the statue to sea. They were beautifully decorated with huge bunches of flowers.

Then they poured petrol over the boat and set it alight.

We didn’t hang around for the dancing and headed home. It was gone 10pm by the time we got home – that’s the latest we’ve been out in a very long time.

We were delighted to watch a fireworks display over Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat – what a lovely way to end a lovely evening.

  

It was really hot again today so we decided to have another lazy day sunbathing after such a late night!

Yesterday I didn’t realise that I hadn’t included all the festivals so here are the rest of them…

Fête nationale

July 14th marks France’s Fête nationale, known as Bastille Day in the Anglophone world, which is a public holiday. The big military parade is on the Champs-Elysée in Paris but most towns do something to mark the occasion, with concerts, parties and fireworks displays. 

AUGUST

MiMa 

MiMa is the International Festival of Puppet Art, held from August 4th to August 7th in the medieval town of Mirepoix, Ariège. The festival is open to young creators as well as artists who influence and update the recent history of puppet theatre, an inventive art with many faces. The line-up showcases a variety of techniques, with glove puppets, string puppets and marionettes portées.

Festival du Bout du Monde

The darkly named End of the World Festival takes place from August 5th to August 7th at Landaoudec Prairie on the Crozon Peninsula in Brittany, a few hundred yards from the wild Atlantic ocean. The wonderful Ballaké Sissoko is on the programme this year, as is the drum-and-trumpet fusion of Gallowstreet, as well as Julian Marley and Selah Sue.

Rock en Seine

Stromae, Rage Against the Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Jehnny Beth, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, London Grammar, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Crawlers, and Baby Queen are among the numerous acts lined up for this year’s annual and mostly family friendly – if you don’t mind Zack de la Rocha’s swearing – Rock en Seine festival at Domaine national de Saint-Cloud.

I also found this rather bizarre article in The Local France.. 

French sandwich politics: What your snack choice says about you

You might think that a sandwich is just a sandwich - but in France food also has a political meaning, here's what your favourite lunch (allegedly) reveals about your politics.

Published: 14 June 2022 12:46 CEST

Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP

What?

The jambon-beurre, the most-consumed sandwich in France.  

Is it good?

It’s the absolute staple of French sandwich cuisine, available everywhere and like most simple things, truly delicious.

A true jambon-buerre is a fresh-baked baguette, thickly spread with butter, filled with good ham with a few sliced cornichons (pickled cucumbers) to add bite.

What’s the argument?

It’s about politics, specifically the politics of the ham sandwich. The sandwich itself doesn’t get a vote, but is it a left-wing food or a right-wing food?

Why are we asking this?

The French left-wing daily paper Libération has launched a new series called ‘battle du frigo‘ (battle of the fridge) looking at the political identities of certain foods.

They’re probably just trying to inject some interest into what has so far been a fairly dull parliamentary election campaign, but it’s undeniably true that food takes on a political importance in France.

Think back to the presidential campaign when candidates were tripping over themselves to assure voters that they loved French steak, French cheese and French wine.

So if a ham sandwich could vote, who would it vote for?

Well it seems that the experts are divided.

Here’s the argument for it being a right-wing food, from Nicolas Kayser-Bril, academic and author of Bouffes bluffantes – la veritable histoire de la nouriture: “A jambon-beurre is right-wing… with nuances.

“When we think of ham and butter, we think of the urban proletariat of the late 19th century – but at that time it would not be what the peasants in the country ate – ham was a luxury which no-one ate every day.

“The jambon-beurre is therefore a cultural construction that symbolises superiority.

“Today there is the added nuance that by eating ham in an ostentatious way, one is consciously opposed to those who do not eat it, such as vegetarians or those who do not eat it for religious reasons.”

The case for it being a left-wing food is made by Aïtor Alfonso, food critic and author.

He says: “There is a puritanism on the left where taking pleasure would be bad; the right and the extreme right, on the other hand, would be on the side of the buxom and the over-eaters. But the right does not have a monopoly on eating!

“The political project of the left is to make sure that everyone can afford a luxury dish, like meat, from time to time.

“By giving access to good things to as many people as possible, we access the project of the social left: not to confine pleasure to an elite.”

So there we have it – although if the jambon-beurre is of both the left and the right, surely it’s the appropriate lunch for centrist president Emmanuel Macron?