The boys are members of the local Judo club which has an excellent membership and an inspirational teacher. We spend several hours per week at the club and have been made to feel very welcome indeed. And last weekend the boys were invited to join the parade to celebrate 100 years of sporting associations in Saint Jean de Losne.
The French love a parade. They love a marching band. They love flags and banners and noise and uniforms. The emergency services usually join in and love to sound their sirens. And the parade nearly always visits the retirement home. I think it might be the french version of taking great-grandma to feed the ducks in the park (for those in the know - long live Beryl Reid in the Beiderbecke series!)
Saint Jean de Losne is not a big town, but when there is a parade it seems like a city the size of London. These parades can take up to two hours. I reckon a parade is the secret weapon in the Dukan diet arsenal because there is no time to stop and eat. Or perhaps this swarming syndrome is the most effective way to keep heating bills down and the town warm in the winter. Or maybe the decibel level is so high that it helps to drown out the annoying mobylettes (noisy scooters) that buzz about incessantly. After all - there can't be too many people who watch the parade as most of the town is already taking part in it.
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| apparently this appliance is still in service! |
And only six days later we found ourselves in another parade. Same town. Different band. This time the boys paraded with school friends to the War Memorial for the Remembrance Service. They wore their poppies and fielded questions from bemused locals who do not know the poppies' significance. And they sang the Marseillaise and marched behind the band and the firemen and the local dignitaries.
Our next scheduled parade is on December 11th : a re-run of the St Nicolas celebration which we took part in last year. I wonder which band it will be?
Here the sousaphone player nearly causes a pile-up!
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