C'est la Fete!

Yesterday evening, to celebrate our town's local saint and the end of the holidays, we went to the final night of the yearly four-day fair (or fete).The beautiful architecture of the town looks strange juxtaposed with the flashing fairground rides, but it's a lot of fun!
No point in turning up straight after work, as we used to in England.
Here, nothing really gets started until it gets dark...
We've learned that the hard way over the last four years.
Some of you may remember our local Saint, Julien. This unusual carving of him always seems appropriate at the spring Plant Fair. Well, the last weekend has been a chance to celebrate his patronage...
Before it got dark, we had a chance to see the glamorous band warming up - they didn't really get started until we were going home.
This is where the family headed, straight away... Ben and the boys had an enormous amount of luck on the 'shove penny' game last year, and even if they don't win, they love it...
The prizes were predictably less spectacular this year!
All the males in my family are good at shooting. 12 dead balloons between them - no rubbery sphere has a chance where they're concerned! I am glad it's only once a year...
This sad sight rather worried us - we are certain that it's one of my Hellhounds, still straying and now without his brother. He's much less confident than he was before. We don't really know what to do, but at least he was making himself well-known last night and we hope that officialdom will take an interest in him now. I'll keep you posted...
Finally, the rides were up and running and the boys went mad on the dodgems!
Now, what to eat at a French fair? Why is this familar children's character so prevalent?
That's because spun sugar (candy floss or cotton candy) is called 'Father's Beard' in French - literally, 'Barbe a Papa'! (Euch!)
Miam miam! (Yum yum!)
Oh, we love this little character!
And on your crepes, you get Bonne Maman jam...
At 9pm, we were instructed to gather in the Halle for a lantern-lit procession. Around 9.30pm, they started giving out lanterns. My friend Fan-fan was getting frustrated - she's not very French in this way...
About 15 minutes after that, with much (very careful) candle-lit jostling, we followed the local marching band down to the stadium. Om-pom-pom all the way!
The fete organisers were all identifiable in yellow, and the mayor was with them...
And off went the fireworks!
Rather drastically, the Vent d'Autan had started up - this is the wind that Blows the Wrong Way. You can see that this would be a drawback when a firework display has been carefully planned for the prevailing wind...
The fireworks exploded directly over us, and we were showered with ash.
The boys, in the front row, were quite excited about how much fell on them...
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I am going to avoid the local opposition website, as it will be full of nastiness about how the mayor should have predicted the Vent d'Autan...
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Aside from local politics, we had a great evening! We were able to stay up late because school doesn't start immediately after the fair this year, which is a great change. Son 2 and I will cycle off to his Induction Day at College tomorrow morning (College is Secondary School or Junior High, or Middle School, basically), and Son 1 will restart in the year above him the following day. The lazy, hazy days of summer are over - Vive la Rentrée!