Today is Summer Soltice which is marked in France by a music festival. Every city, town, and many villages set up bandstands big and little (or sometimes just a reserved piece of the sidewalk) to let local artists play in the street while people mill about listening and liking or not and moving on to the next group. Stuff starts around 8:00 pm and ends very late. Last year, on the morning of the 22nd, I walked out onto our terrace in my - let's just call them sleeping clothes - thinking, at 6:30 am, that I could do so unobserved. (Our terrace is at the back of the house and overlooks a path leading to several driveways). There were 3 young men in the middle of the path discussing the merits of the bands they had seen while finishing those last 3 beers. They looked up when I walked out and said, "Well, hi! Is it morning already?" I replied it was indeed morning, could I offer them some coffee or a cellphone to call a taxi? No thanks, they said, they were going to go get some croissants and walk home.
I used to go to the music festival. But for the past several years I haven't had to. I live in downtown Laval. On a completely residential street a few blocks away from streets with cafés and restaurants and shops. Which means that tonight, for example, I can hear two bands at the same time. One crap and one ok but neither anything I would risk mosquito bites to listen to outside. Which also means that I will hear them until about 2 hours before I finally get up and greet the stragglers from my terrace tomorrow morning. This time I'll be wearing a bathrobe over my sleeping clothes.
2 comments:
Reminds me of my days living in Chicago - except I was usually fully dressed when I was out on my terrace.
Beth - well, Laval is rural compared to Chicago.
Christi - totally your kind of event.
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