A French Halloween

First, my French village, which never heard of Halloween a decade ago, had almost every store decorated in ghosts, cobwebs and gourds -- not pumpkins which are still relatively rare.

Second, they turned on the Christmas lights, every street hung with fairy lights, creating a magical world. One company does the lights for the entire region so they go up early, much earlier, than the normal Dec. 15th lighting. The lighted nativity scene on the 13th century scene was a bit bizarre,

Third, Place Gambetta had a cobwebbed stage with performers celebrating Halloween.

The streets were filled with miniature devils, ghosts, Spidermen, witches and spooks walking with sometimes masked parents.

Fourth, our front door kept ringing with these creatures, none of which said, "Trick or Treat" but held out bags or baskets as parents stood behind smiling and laughing.

Many of the parents, recognizing my accent as I did the proper responses in French, said "thank you" instead of "merci."

This was the first for me since my childhood many decades back and the celebration was even stronger than my childhood memories. Even in those times, it was not the same participation.

By eight or twenty hundred hours, we turned off our lights, drew the curtains, and sat to watch Netflix in a state of utter delight.