"I was told there would be torches..."

[Frankenstein hunting with my torch.]

...and not only did the french not dissapoint, but they also did not mess around! Do you see this thing? Who let me have this?! I am not responsible enough to carry one of these!


[Torchless, but not for long...]

We arrived at the Fete de St. Maurice on Saturday night in Thoiry just in time, as there were only a handful of torches (for the adults) and lanterns (for the kiddies - still with 4 inch tall white lit candles inside them) left. I apologize in advance for the quality of the upcoming pictures, but I haven't mastered night vision on my camera yet. I think you'll get the idea though...


[Somebody hook a brother up with a light...]


After everybody was lit up (ha), we followed a german "Oompa" band around the block...


[In shock that someone gave him a real torch...]


[Oompa band doing their thing.]


[My crazy torch.]

And through all of this, all I kept thinking was, "Nobody better light my hair on fire..." In actuality if anyone was going to light my hair on fire it would have been me, my torch was a little out of control...


[The mob.]



Kim went for the classier and slightly less pyro-technic celebratory lantern, while Dan and I went all out with torch glory...


And we just kept saying, "Man, they would have NEVER let us do this back in the US..."



[Notice small child to the left with torch...]


And so, like the Pied Piper, we followed the sounds of the Oompa band to the Salle de fete for the disco.


But not before a little Barbapapa...i.e. the biggest cotton candy I've ever seen. This cotton candy was almost larger than an almost two year old!



And I had my first crepe made by a french person!


[French carny games...]


[You can't have your torch and barbapapa too...]

Marc showed up late and totally missed the Torch Parade! Luckily for him Frankenstein was NOT caught, so he has another chance next year. Sidenote: For those of you who don't know, "Frankenstein" was written in nearby Geneva by Mary Shelley and part of the story takes place right in our backyard - the Jura Mountains.


For the record, this was the petite size barbapapa - we didn't dare get the maxi...


Then it was on to the disco...yes, that is what a dance is called here...


This is french people dancing to the Macarena. My heart swelled at the excitement that filled the room once this song came on among the people on the dance floor. I didn't have the heart to tell them that people stopped doing this (at least in public) a good 15 years ago...



Here you will notice two little girls playing with an empty Smirnoff bottle...and with that we decided to call it a night. I have two videos to share from that night as well, which will hopefully be posted right after this one...