This week was an important one in the French calendar as it contained the 14th July, otherwise known as Bastille Day, the French National Day. It commemorates the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison in Paris, in 1789. The purpose was two-fold – to release political prisoners and to obtain ammunition and gunpowder, as the people (the peasants) feared reprisal attacks by the royal military and the feudal lords. Realizing the futility of trying to hold out against the attack, the Governor of the prison opened the gates, but due to a misunderstanding fighting continued and 65 of the attackers lost their lives while only one defender died. At the time, there were only seven prisoners incarcerated and none of them were political prisoners. However, the point had been made and shortly after, feudalism was abolished and the Declaration of Man and the Citizen was proclaimed. So now, every year at this time great celebrations are held in which fireworks play a big part.
In Aignan, the celebrations took the form of a communal dinner, held outdoors in the square in front of the community hall, followed by music and dancing, and finished off with the inevitable fireworks. Dinner consisted of a 3-melon starter with Parma ham (Spanspek, wintermelon and another white fleshed Spanish melon); duck breast, freshly grilled by the man at the braai, served with green beans and a couple of chunks of baguette; finished off with a commercial cornet ice-cream. There was also coffee, and of course, wine with the meal. Once again we were impressed by the behaviour of the children. There was no screaming or rushing about madly in and out of the adults. They all went off to one side and the bigger ones looked after the smaller ones, and everything was pleasant and orderly. When the time came, the children were fed first, and when the music was turned up for the dancing, they all joined in too. And since all the children had displayed such adult manners all evening, it gave the adults every excuse to ooh and aah at the fireworks, like children!
The following morning was a very late one in the Ferreira household! However we couldn’t dally too much as we were expecting a small guest later in the day and had arranged to collect her in the early afternoon from a house we had never been to before. It was not hard to find though and with the help of Jane and the directions given to us by the householder, we drove straight there. Our guest was a small rough-haired Jack Russell terrier, called Dappley, and she had come to stay for the weekend while her owners went on a white-water rafting excursion. Dappley was not at all sure about the arrangement, and sat bolt upright and perfectly still on my lap for the entire return trip, rather like a stuffed toy. However, after a day, she settled down and has made herself very much at home with us. She hops up on to the couch when Neels settles down to read, but is just as ready to go do some wild digging in the garden if we are outside. I think she has frightened all the field mice for miles around by digging open the entrance to a few burrows and huffing down them with great enthusiasm. She is a dear little thing and we will miss her when she goes back home at the end of the weekend.
It is now sunflower time in the Gers! The wheat has been harvested, the straw and grass cut and baled, and the bales have been carted to various farms. Now the sunflower plants which were only thirty centimetres high when we went to Vazerac on the 22nd June, are now over a metre tall and are flowering. What a wonderful sight! We are wondering what comes next in the farming year.
The weather this week has been really pleasant as it has been quite cold at night; cool in the morning and evening and then fairly warm in the middle of the day, and sunny most days. The weather forecast tells us that we should enjoy this while we can as it is just building up steam for another few sweltering days similar to the days we had a couple of weeks back. Oh dear!
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