I did a bit of work in the morning and at about 2 o clock stopped for some food and to do some laundry. They don’t have machines here you have to use powder, elbow grease and a washing line the old fashioned way. At least it’s not pure thought which I have to say gets really, really dull sometimes! Truth is work is going really well, and luckily I haven’t needed to use the internet for it yet... just as well cos I can’t get a signal here.
So having done my chores I went into the new town at about 6 o clock. The path along the river is packed full of people waiting for the fireworks. There are motor homes on the other side, some people with their sofa’s on the bank. They are really taking their comfort for the forth coming spectacle quite seriously. There are people everywhere! I asked someone what time the fireworks start. The general consensus seems to be about 8.30 to 9.
Market traders
I get to my favourite bar in the new town and sit down with a cold beer. The market is also on. Right opposite is a guy with series of clothes hanger frames with lots of ladies dresses hanging from them. This is a lady trying on a dress over her clothes and she’s getting the market seller to hold the mirror for her. While she checks out how awful she looks. It really looks terrible... Shes not the best of shapes bless her, but the dress is like a sack with an elasticated bottom. The colours on the dress are faded and kind of dirty looking. It looks like it needs a wash. In it she looked like a bag of spanners! “Dont buy it...” I was screaming with every ounce of telepathic power I had. “What do you think?” she said to her daughter? “C’est bon” she said. Her daughter was wearing a cheap tartan skirt pulled up around her armpits, huge oversized glasses twice as wide as her head and bright purple flip flops. “Don’t ask her!!!” I was transmitting on full power. While holding the mirror the guy looked round and saw my worried expression and bit his lip, as if to say... My god I think she’s gonna buy it!! Market traders eh? No morals! In the end she couldn’t decide whether to go for the pure brown or the purply brown so she bought two!
After my beer I headed back towards the river where the crowds are getting ridiculous. There are only two bridges and they’ve had to close the older one; presumably cos it wouldn’t take the weight of all the people. The bridges it seems give you the best view of the old town. The old town itself is closed today to all but the pyrotechnics guys. Now if crowds are anything to go this is going to be a spectacle the likes of which I’ve not seen before. Some people have been staking out there plot since midday. There are frogmen in the river in case people go over the bank or the one remaining bridge.
Everywhere people are letting off fireworks! Even kids about 8 years old are setting them off in amongst the crowds of people and no-one is batting an eyelid. Even the police who are everywhere. It may seem a little reckless but at least the nanny state doesn’t reign supreme here! I reckon there must be at least a million people within a radius of a kilometre of the old city... all sitting there waiting for it to get dark!
Now 8.30 came and went. So did 9.30, by 10 its pitch black and I’m getting really bored sitting around and waiting. I’ve seen countless fireworks displays in my time and really don’t expect to see anything new. Thing is it’s like a bad film... once you’ve bought it at the video shop taken it home watched the first really dull 45 minutes, you don’t want to switch it off in case something really good is about to happen and everyone raves about it at some point in the future. “What???... You went to Carcassone and went home just as the fireworks were about to start???” I can hear people saying.
The fireworks
Well, at 10.30 they started. Now this was nothing like anything I had seen before. I’ll try and give you an impression; You know those really, really big fireworks that go really high and explode in a huge ball of green or blue phosphor? Well every second, for the next 30 minutes AT LEAST 10 of these were exploding, EVERY SECOND! During the crescendos it was more like 30 at a time! Neither was it from a single point. A huge swathe of the night sky from far left to far right was continually exploding for a full 30 minutes. The shock wave from each one hit you in the chest with a dull thud, two seconds after each flash. It was like being machine gunned in the chest... for 30 minutes! I imagine the next day the old town must be carpeted with the carcasses of birds, insects, anything that had the power of flight. And it must have cost millions!
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