There was no rest for the weary on Paques this year, as we had a parade to attend following the Easter Egg hunt at Chateau Voltaire. Fenieres, a commune of Thoiry, has an annual Paques Parade that is the event of the year in our little town, and we made it just in time.
The parade route is about a third of a mile long...
{The America Float. It's funny to see stereotypes thrown back in your face. Apparently America is seen as the land of skyscrapers, McDonald's, the Statue of Liberty, and M & M's that don't do mornings...}
...with about 7 or 8 floats...
{The Ambulance Float...with a bar on it....tended by teenagers...slinging jungle juice...}
...and takes about 2 hours to finish.
There's always a float that breaks down...
(Spoiler alert: It was the Shrek float this year.)
...and being a small town, the floats stop at pretty much every house...
...because how else could the teenagers driving the floats have time to hand out jungle juice to the parade watchers and catch up with their neighbors?
The parade ends with a tent party in a field, complete with an oompa band, cerdon, frites, cerdon, a DJ, shenanigans, cerdon, costumes, a raffle, cerdon..
.
....did I mention the cerdon?
It's good fun and goes on well into the night. We can often hear the DJ from our house. We never make it much past the oompa band though. A few jungle juices, some frites and cerdon at the tent, and we're usually ready to head home, put on a baseball game, and Skype with family and friends back in the US. This was Oswin's first Fenieres Paques Parade (well, that's kind of a lie, I was pregnant and feeling horrible at last year's parade), and she loved it. Again, like the egg hunt, SO. MANY. PEOPLE. So many noises! So many colorful floats! (Seven is a really big number when you're only six months old.)
The funniest part to me? As you guys know, we call Oswin's alter ego Smaug the Inconsolable. Ever since then, dragons have been a big theme for us. Dragon stuffed animals have been go-to presents for her, and we (and she) love them. Her current favorite is a pink dragon in a tutu that we have affectionately named "Lady Smaug," and low and behold, Lady Smaug turned up on a float at the parade.
Priceless.
We here at the House of Hadron hope you all had a great Passover, Paques, or whatever Spring holiday you celebrate. Here's to another year of jungle juice and tubas from our small french village!
A la prochaine friends...
Honey
There was no rest for the weary on Paques this year, as we had a parade to attend following the Easter Egg hunt at Chateau Voltaire. Fenieres, a commune of Thoiry, has an annual Paques Parade that is the event of the year in our little town, and we made it just in time.
The parade route is about a third of a mile long...
...with about 7 or 8 floats...
...and takes about 2 hours to finish.
There's always a float that breaks down...
(Spoiler alert: It was the Shrek float this year.)
...and being a small town, the floats stop at pretty much every house...
...because how else could the teenagers driving the floats have time to hand out jungle juice to the parade watchers and catch up with their neighbors?
The parade ends with a tent party in a field, complete with an oompa band, cerdon, frites, cerdon, a DJ, shenanigans, cerdon, costumes, a raffle, cerdon..
.
....did I mention the cerdon?
It's good fun and goes on well into the night. We can often hear the DJ from our house. We never make it much past the oompa band though. A few jungle juices, some frites and cerdon at the tent, and we're usually ready to head home, put on a baseball game, and Skype with family and friends back in the US. This was Oswin's first Fenieres Paques Parade (well, that's kind of a lie, I was pregnant and feeling horrible at last year's parade), and she loved it. Again, like the egg hunt, SO. MANY. PEOPLE. So many noises! So many colorful floats! (Seven is a really big number when you're only six months old.)
The funniest part to me? As you guys know, we call Oswin's alter ego Smaug the Inconsolable. Ever since then, dragons have been a big theme for us. Dragon stuffed animals have been go-to presents for her, and we (and she) love them. Her current favorite is a pink dragon in a tutu that we have affectionately named "Lady Smaug," and low and behold, Lady Smaug turned up on a float at the parade.
Priceless.
We here at the House of Hadron hope you all had a great Passover, Paques, or whatever Spring holiday you celebrate. Here's to another year of jungle juice and tubas from our small french village!
A la prochaine friends...
Honey
Every parade should have the teenage mutant ninja turtles :)
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