Andrew had not long-commented on the relative quiet in Uzès
on a Sunday morning, when the sound of bagpipes at close-range alerted us to
some excitement in the street below.
Stopping only to grab the camera, Andrew was out the door and down the
three flights of stairs in a flash.
Fortunately Elle (who is not known for hasty getting-herself-together in
the morning) was already showered, dressed and caffeinated, but the remaining
members of the family had their clothes flung at them and on them by their
mother (poor Xavey did his own shoes and wandered the cobblestoned streets in
wrong-footed sandals for a while), and a few minutes later the family regrouped
in our front doorway.
The immediate scene that greeted Andrew when he exited our
door onto the street is shown below:
Thereafter, the family witnessed a great procession of
swordsman, birds of prey and handlers, musicians, lepers, and finally the
knights on horseback. We then followed
the procession until it terminated at an open area called ‘The Esplanade’,
where Xavier endeared himself to the musicians, receiving drum and flute
lessons, and Will got to try on chain mail and wield a sword.
Grace and Will have been reading and re-reading the same
four English-language books for nearly three weeks now, so this afternoon we
indulged in some e-library-book-borrowing, and they spent a relaxing afternoon
sprawled out on our bed, absorbed in new literature. Having exhausted the Peppa Pig and Ben and Polly
DVDs from our limited travelling selection, Elle cursed ABC i-view’s lack of
foreign accessibility, and resorted to a BBC “Cbeebies” program for Xave to
relax with. Peace reigned for at least
an hour.
Grace didn’t want to leave the apartment again until the
“lepers” had left town, and Will had just had enough for the day, but Andrew
and Xavier then headed out for another look at the medieval activities. At this time, the birds of prey act was in
full swing, and a large crowd had gathered to watch them fly between handlers,
posts and prey.
Xavier also still had enough energy to join Elle for a trip
to the shops at about 4.30pm, with mixed success. On the plus side, he was keen to stop again
to look at the horses and watch the medieval horse-back competitions (men on
horseback seeking to thrust jousting sticks through rings – we are relieved to
report that it appeared that the Duc d’Uzes won), sword-fighting and
blacksmithing. We also had a few more
broken-French conversations in shops and with a man on the street who, seeing
Xavier determinedly lugging his Peppa Pig backpack, called him a grimpeur de montagne (I think).
Sort-of also on the plus side, we learned that the three,
small, local supermarkets within about 500 metres of our place close for the
day at 1pm on Sunday. So while we could
buy some fabulous clothes, shoes or home-wares, and of course bread and cakes,
it was not possible to acquire ham, (frozen) peas and asparagus (although that
at least is definitely in season and abundantly available when the right shops
are open, unlike the pumpkin Andrew went in search of on Friday). C’est
la vie! No risotto for us tonight, but we managed to pair the beautiful
fresh baguette we could buy, with fresh strawberries we bought at a roadside
stall on the way home from Châteauneuf-du-Pape yesterday, plus leftover minestrone (served with the
beautiful basil pesto made by our Genovian B&B host), leftover birthday
strawberry tart, fresh nougat that I forgot to serve to guests last night, and
some oranges. Will was disturbed that
the minestrone was no longer very soupy, and Grace said she would prefer not to
have it again for a while, but everyone left the table satisfied.
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