Another wonderful holiday night

This holiday is so wonderful, it could almost be booring. The excessive heat is the only thing negative, but that is forgotten with the comings and going of year-round and summer residents.

The street was blocked by all the tables of the neighbors who were eating their evening meal on the street prior to the fireworks being shot off the roof of the church on the eve of France's national holiday. Wending my way from the green grocer on the corner to my door was like walking through the UN. There were Dutch, English (The Swedish have not yet arrived), my fellow Swiss, French, Danes galore, and of course Catalans.

Wine, sangria, champagne, coffee, tea, breads, vegetables were in abundance as was conversation, salads, meats, cheeses.

The French teacher had a new kitten or at least I assume there was a kitten under all the beige fur. All pet owners moved their animals indoors before the fireworks were to start. In past years when I had my chins, I would watch the fireworks from the Château Valmy far enough away that with the car windows closed and the radio blaring, they did not react to the booms and bangs.

Someone handed me a nectarine, picked from a local tree earlier in the day. The juice exploded all over my hand when I bit into it, but it was as sweet as the evening.