The pressure to make more progress on our projects has driven us indoors more often lately. That said, we’re still getting out 2-3 days a week to explore the beautiful country here in Provence. We had loosely planned to go to Carcassonne for Bastille day, but the ~6 hour round trip was less appealing than seeing what our charming little town Carpentras would do to celebrate.

A week ago, we left the house to take a drive and found the parking spot where we left our car empty. Not the best feeling as some of you know. But the fact that the entire main parking lot of the town was completely taken over by a massive caravan of trucks, trailers, and vans quickly evaporated any thoughts of theft that we might have had. No, the police were responsible for this one. It seems we failed to read a sign properly that said that all but one row of parking would be taken for the traveling carnival for the next week or so. But I’m off on a tangent. I tell that because part of the Bastille Day celebration in this small town is that carnival that cost us 125 Euro, and we didn’t even ride any rides.

As the carnival set up over a few days the main squares of the town were also taken over by a variety of musical performance venues, equestrian exhibitions, and other displays of local flavor. We took a stroll each day, either on the way to the store or specifically just to look around, and found the little town bustling with activity relating to the celebration. The movement and mood of the people was not really excitement, nor was it obligation, but instead it was more clearly that of tradition.

In the days leading up to Bastille Day (July 14th, French Revolution/Independence) the air was full of drums from wandering bands of costumed drummers and their entourage of dancers. Day and night. It was fun to see and hear them when we were out and around.

On Bastille day we stayed home and worked during the afternoon, but later we went to dinner at a great little restaurant nearby. We noticed a continuous flow of people going around the old town and through the middle of it, all heading generally northward. I dismissed it as people going home for the evening and, as the carnival had taken over the main parking for the town, they must have parked somewhere in that direction. Lisa was more intuitive. She said “I wonder if they’re all going the same place. Maybe there’s fireworks.”

Wise woman. We followed the crowd through the pedestrian streets of the old town to the open space on the northern side. Sure enough, a very large crowd had gathered and continued to gather until 10:30pm when the Mayor of Carpentras gave a speech and introduced the fireworks with a “Liberte. Egalite. Fraternite. Vive La France!” The fireworks were quite impressive for a relatively small town, even choreographed to a mixture of pop and traditional music. Some of the kinds of fireworks used we’d never seen before. Perhaps the most impressive were rockets that launched higher than the others and, upon bursting, release twenty or thirty red paper hot air balloons with burning cores into the air. The cores continued to burn which kept them aloft for a long time as they slowly drifted toward the ground. The wind carried them out over the crowd and many landed in trees no more than 20 yards from us. Really cool. Really. Aside from the balloons our favorites were some spinning discs of fire that fell slowly and brightly to the ground, and some cascading streams of sparkling fireworks that shot up from the ground. The best way to describe them, I think, is upside down waterfalls of sparkling gold fire. We have been used to the big Washington, DC July 4th fireworks bash, and the annual NYC light show, but for a small town these guys held their own and showed us something new. So glad Lisa pressed us to check it out.

Sorry the pics aren’t going to faintly do it justice, but here are some…