Despite all of the hard work we have allowed ourselves a bit of time off to explore the surrounding areas and experience a bit of French festival culture. Last week we went to Les Luminessences at the Palais Des Papes in Avignon, which is a light show in the central courtyard of the Palace. You are guided into the large courtyard at dark, and for an hour the four walls are animated with an amazing 360 degree light and sound show.
Our French is yet to improve enough for us to have understood the whole story, but you could simply appreciate it for the sheer scale and special effects. There were peacock feathers….
City scenes…
Religious imagery…
And even the simple lights were beautiful…
It was similar to the light show we saw at the Pont Du Gard in June, with light being projected onto the large Roman Aqueduct. We took a trip there for our wedding anniversary and camped over for the night. The show started with people wearing light suits traversing across the rocks in front of us…
Followed by incredible projections of moving images onto the aqueduct. A bridge made from bones…
Leopard print…
And the eyes were watching us from the opposite bank of the river…
Finally, following a huge fireworks display, there was a multicoloured and psychedelic end to the night…
We have also been surprised by our local village parties, stumbling across a full blown ‘soirée mousse’ (foam party) in the square the other week during the fete of St Eloi. There was a canon pumping out huge volumes of foam into an area barriered off with plastic-covered fences, with only heads visible above the white sea of foam dancing away to the music!
Most recently, we were travelling back from a day at the beach, and in the centre of Rognonas we saw over 1000 people seated in the square for a dinner of moules frites. It was incredible to see so many people being served at the same time to mark the end of the fete of St Roch. We were very tempted to buy a ticket then and there but we’d already had moules frites for lunch so we made do with watching from a bar.
Later that night there was a brilliant brass band playing, and we joined in with (or rather were dragged into!) the dancing.
Who knows what else we might stumble across in the village before the year is out! From bull running to traditional parades, foam parties to line dancing, moules frites feasts to giant paellas. It appears that there is never a dull moment in Rognonas.