Bastille Day

Do I know how to party or what? Bastille Day, independence day for France, was a bit of a bust. It rained all day. Not just rain, torrential downpours and big lightning bolts and loud thunder. So I spent all day in my room writing a paper. In a way, it’s good—it’s less I’ll have to do when I get back home. And actually, the writing went really well…to the point that it may have been my most productive day in terms of work in months…maybe I should come to France more often. The isolation and lack of internet likely helped significantly.
The work was interrupted periodically by getting together with Gareth who was doing the same thing as me. We went and got breakfast and lunch, then at 6:30 PM, when we had enough, took his PhD student and got some beers and dinner. Sitting and drinking beer under an umbrella in a thunderstorm…that’s the way to spend the evening.

Fortunately the rain let up and we made our way east for the Bastille Day fireworks show. Here it was, French Independence, a day of pride and celebration of all things French. The countdown begins, they launch the fireworks and start blaring music to celebrate. The first song? Desire by U2…also on the play list, Oasis, The Bangles, Amy Winehouse, and some other non-French artists. Not bad, though.

It was an impressive fireworks display though. In the US, it’s usually one firework that goes up, goes off, then fades. Then another does the same. Here, it was 30 minutes of continuous launching, with the grand finale being a bit sensory overload. It was very nice.

Now off to bed (as I write this…I’ll post tomorrow morning from the conference). Adieu.