What a better de-stresser from house-hunting than to head over to Limoux for the annual Fecos, or Carnaval? From January 17 to March 7, 2007, in the Place de la Republic, His Majesty the King of the Carnaval will preside over the proceedings. Every weekend there will be more and more parades in the main square. Masked pierrots accompanied by musicians following and playing for them make their way through the tunnel of spectators. They stop at each cafe along the square, enter and entertain and/or annoy the customers. Confetti forming snow-like drifts is strewn about the square. The pierrots wear clown-like uniforms, the colors strikingly bright even on gloomy days. The weekend events occur at 11am, 4:30pm and 10pm both Saturday and Sunday until Easter. The bands playing take turns, but each is apparently distinguishable by its distinctive colors. Entertainers also sport carabenas, the long flexible decorative wands. Hundreds of people turn out the Sunday morning we arrive. Vendors selling beignets and honey, little girls riding the carousel, elderly ladies wearing their finest, and the sun streaming down. Life is good!Limoux is also famous for another reason---Blanquette. As the story goes, Dom Perignon was making his way through the Limoux area and happened to stop and was treated to a taste of a delightfully effervescent drink. He was so taken by it that he immediately returned to Champagne and reproduced the "recipe" to create what we now know as champagne. Where the fable ends and the truth begins is up to the imagination. It all depends upon whom you ask, and how much you've had to drink.
5 comments:
Is Doug the one in the red wig or the monkey mask? :)
He's the guy with the tuba
Eh bien, bonne journee vous dites quand vous departez un petit atelier, une boutique, la boulangerie, la banque etc. Vous dites bonjour quand vous entrez. Et tous le temps, avec bonjour ou bonne journee vous dites monsieur ou madame.
Votre rue est nomme apres la boulangere. Il cuisse (j'espere que c'est le verbe to cook dans le conjugation propre) le pain dans la four. Je pense que de temps en temps il y a une boulangere a la rue. C'est comme ici, nous avons Bank Road and pourquois vous pouvez imaginer.
I hope that the french is fun to decipher, again, don't let anyone french read the post. I don't write french much at all and when I speak I am pulling words out of the air, taking corrections etc. The funniest thing that Joan and Drew and I experienced with the french early on was three days after a conversation with someone we would smack our foreheads and say, oh mon dieu, do you know what I said to M. Guintran, the painter the other day? It is funny how your brain works with a second language, that three days later you will suddenly understand what you said, and it wasn't anything close to what you wanted to say. But I think that the more you can converse, however pitifully, the more you can ask for help with words, the more carefully you listen to how the french go about their business, the faster you will learn. I am still hung up on articles agreeing with nouns, verb tenses and wish I could get the syntax. The important thing is to try, no matter how stupid you think you sound, if you try they adore you and after all we think that french accents are so charming, I believe they think our accent is, well, not charming, but cute maybe.
Bonne nuit, je fais dodo.
Huh?
She called you a dodo Doug. Its french for dummy.
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