Bonjour
We have just passed the longest day of the year. The daylight hours on 21 June were 5.59am to 10.17pm. That’s over 16 hours of daylight, compared with the winter solstice hours of 8 hours, so we should start noticing the days getting shorter pretty quickly.
The summer solstice is a really big deal in France with the annual “Féte de la Musique” celebrated throughout the country. This started back in the 70s and it involves free musical performances in the streets of cities and towns. In Cherbourg, all the streets were closed to traffic and the town became one big street party. This was hot on the heels of many of the bars packed by people watching the French play at the World Cup (they beat Peru). It could have turned in to a big drunken mess but it was the complete opposite. There was a great party atmosphere and we didn’t see anybody being a goose. The logistics around all the heightened security that we have become used to must have been a headache, but we didn’t hear about any problems and everybody we knew who went really enjoyed it.
It was a bit hard to get decent photos with all the crowds but here are a few….
And then to wrap up the music week, we attended a free concert at the Cherbourg theatre. The main reason we went was to get a chance to see inside the theatre which was built in 1882 and overlooks the town square. The theatre (like the Town Hall, and Basilica ) is so impressive, especially considering that Cherbourg is not a big city. This is typical of so many French towns and villages when, back in the day, so much money and effort was put into making their buildings look beautiful, not just functional.
We have seen often from the outside but you don’t often get an opportunity to see the inside.
And now for something completely different – fruit……. When we were in Paris we went to a restaurant on the Champs Elysees (not cheap but worth the experience) and this is the dessert menu. So if you are ever wondering how to fancy up the serving of a half a pineapple – here is the French way. The bottom photo is some peaches we bought at the local Saturday markets. They are shaped like donuts or bagels but taste like normal peaches.
Au revoir
L & M.
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