Brit

Hi and welcome to this page dedicated to keeping you updated with how our char (float) is progressing before the big day on the 14^th July.

Click here to visit our tourist guide to the area

Click here to go straight to the big day

How it started

For those that don’t know, the 14^th July is La Fête Nationale in France. It’s the nations big day and it’s celebrated with parties, carnivals, fireworks etc all over the country. It marks the day in 1789 when the peasants stormed the Bastille prison. It was part of the first French revolution, which saw France change from a Monarchy to a Republic with lots of the aristocracy loosing their heads on the way.

In La Trimouille they hold a carnival in the afternoon, followed by a big party in a field by the River Benaize which finishes with a firework display. It is a real fun day with a great atmosphere. Well worth a visit if you are in the area in July.

Click photo's to enlarge

The carnival normally consists of 4 or 5 floats and 2 or 3 bands providing music. The floats are tractors and trailers covered in crepe paper flowers to a theme set by the Comité des fêtes who organise the event. The pictures shown here were taken during the 2003 carnival with a circus theme. We'd only been living here for just over 2 weeks and the boys were invited to ride on the school float. Daniel still hasn't forgiven me for making him wear a pink wig (I convinced him it was purple!).

This year it was announced that there may not be a carnival due to the lack of people willing to help out with making the floats. Our friend Dee Worthington went along to the meeting where the 14th July celebrations were to be discussed. Various alternative ideas were put forward, but the general consensus was that they still really wanted a carnival. Dee suggested the Brit's of La Trimouille have a go at building a float, an idea that delighted the Chairman, Pascal Jaccard, as he was just about to ask if the Brit's would be interested. So it was agreed. Dee would contact the expat's in the area to see if there was the support, while Pascal and the committee would try and motivate a few more of the French.

The end result is that the carnival is back on and we have a small group of willing, though possibly not able etrangers who are going to spent every spare minute for the next few months making paper flowers. We’ve not even started and you can see there’s going to be a lot of work to do. But for us it’s all new and different to what we have been involved in before. If it’s left to the same people year in, year out, its easy to understand why they were thinking of cancelling the event.

The Plan

After a flurry of e-mail's a meeting was arranged to get things moving. Dee chaired the meeting at Bobby and Andy Crick's house in the centre of the metropolis that is La Trimouille and went through the details of what we had to do and what we had to work with. It's going to be a big job. We have been advised that somewhere in the region of 10,000 paper roses will be needed. And then they've got to be fixed into place to make something recognisable on the trailer.

This years theme is the cinema and we have opted for the colourful story of 101 Dalmatians. With, in true pantomime dame style, we have James Ayres as Cruella and our boys Daniel and Luke (typecast) as the baddies. We've even offered our Dog Poppy as a Dalmatian negative.

We’ve a good group of expats and holiday home owners in the area, who generally are doing a good job of fitting in and contributing to the local community. Most who are able to help have said they will. Even those who can only manage to get out to their holiday homes for a few weeks of the year are offering to do a bit. In the coming weeks I will update this page to let you know how the float is progressing and I’ll try and introduce you to as many of the helpers that I can. I’ll even try and put on some photo’s of the wine evenings (if I get permission)

Getting Started

So, down to the nitty gritty!

Sharon has come up with a design and Andy Crick is drawing it up to scale so that we can work out what we need. Dee, Holly Gregory, Andy and Sharon are going to have a meeting with Pascal to discuss the idea. All of the materials are paid for by the comité, so I guess Pascal will want to make sure we are not going to go too over the top and come up with some Disneyland type float !

Dee has taken delivery of the black and white crepe paper and the cutting has begun. To make our work a little easier we are planning events such as wine and flower making evenings. Should be fun, but I’m not sure about quality control. By the end of the evening we’ll no doubt have lots of black and white weeds. This coming week Pascal's wife Mireille will be giving a demonstration on paper rose making in the Café des Sports. The bar in the centre of town. I'll say no more!

So that's where we are so far. Bookmark this page if you would like to keep up to date with events leading up to the big day. If you live in the area and would like to get involved. Send us an e-mail at tomlin78@hotmail.com

17th April

Things have been moving on at a great pace. The rose making demonstration at the Café des Sports was well attended with Bobby Crick, Sharon, Holly Gregory, Steff Burnell, Pam Simmons, Sandra Ayres, James “Cruella” Ayres, Frances Roberts, Tara Finch, Glynis West, Catherine Fields, Diane Cross and Dee Worthington, managing to make 270 roses. As Dee pointed out, only another 8000 to go! So far we've had a rose making evening at Bobby's, with another one planned for this Thursday at Steph and James's new Chambre d'Hôte in La Trimouille called The Sanctuary.

Pascal has suggested that we start on the construction of the float as soon as possible. A local lady Gisèle is lending us a trailer and Dee has been told to contact somebody called Coco about borrowing a tractor. We're hoping Coco will also drive the tractor on the day, so no clown jokes please.

Trevor Cross, newly arrived in Journet. Has kindly agreed to oversee the construction of the float in between renovating his property as a Chambre d'Hôtes.

After it had been agreed that making 101 puppies would be a struggle. It was decided that 12 would do the job and to make them more effective we will be covering them in fur (nice twist on the film plot eh?) Sharon has made a prototype out of Centre Presse newspapers and Holly Gregory is working out how much fur will be needed. Now here's where it gets really complicated. Iain and Carol Stratton will be looking for black and white spotty fur fabric when they go back to the UK. If they manage to get some, they will deliver it to Toni and Bernard Harper, who will then bring it over with them when they next visit their holiday home in May. If they can't get any we'll be back to the sticky backed plastic and squeazy bottles idea!

To provide entertainment on route we've got Iain suggesting an impromptu cricket match every time the parade stops and Dee has asked if we have any British jugglers in the area. All I can suggest is that my Mother in law will be over at the time so if we need a fire breather we're in luck.

The British involvement is going down very well in the town. Dee (our recently elected secretary of the Syndicat d'Initiative) reported that our motivation has been complimented and Sharon has had people at the school asking all about the British float for the carnival.

6th May

We had a 'construction' meeting at Dee's to discuss the building of the float. 'Special guest' was a reporter from the Nouvelle Republic, a newspaper that covers the south Vienne. They had contacted Dee and wanted to do an article on why so many Brit's are moving to the area. We should be in the paper next week so we'll see what he made of us.

Basically the figures on the floats are made up with a plywood skeleton, which is them covered in cardboard to which the flowers are stuck. As luck would have it Stuart and Joanne have just moved into the area. Stuart is a carpenter and is happy to construct the float on his own. After an audible sigh of relief from the assembled males, Stuart got the job. I'll try and get some photo's as it develops.

James 'Cruella' Ayres informed us that he'd found a great bra for his costume. I'm not sure the French understand the British pantomime dame tradition. This makes James a brave man, as after the 14th July his image in the town could be shot to pieces.

CLICK PHOTO'S TO ENLARGE

The Big Day

After months of hard work, the big day was finally upon us. The float had been assembled and decorated in Georgie's barn and after a last minute scare when it was realised that the top of the float was higher than the main beam all was set for the fête. As is the way with celebrations in France, the 14th July party began on the 13th with a torch lit parade around the town. On a lovely warm summers evening, around 300 people many with torches and lanterns did a lap of the town behind the local band. Ending up in the main square with an open air disco that was still going strong when we left at about 1am.

The day began at 10.30 with a small service by the war memorial. It was a moving moment when those who had died in the London bombings were remembered and the La Trimouille band play Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance (Land of hope and glory), which they had learnt especially for the day.

So, just after lunch on the 14th we began arriving at St Pierre La Trimouille. This is where the carnival starts from and where, with Dee's through planning, we had a couple of Brit's living. Pam and Ged and Bev and Steve very kindly opened their doors for face painting and changing. Bev and Steve had only arrived home in the early hours of that morning from a wedding in Denmark and with Bev still trying to get over a bout of food poisoning, she must have wondered if she was hallucinating with so many people wandering in and out with spotty faces.

Sharon and Joy made a great face painting production line and before we knew it we had about 20 children from 2 to 72 with great doggy faces. Once the furry ears and tails that Frankie and Jane had made were attached we all looked like fine examples of Battersea Dogs Home rejects! Dee had even managed to persuade Coco, our French tractor driver to get dressed up for the part. His reaction to seeing his face after Sharon had finished his spots, was a very French "ooh la la!"

Our float ! I believe I am not being big headed (basically because I had nothing to do with the making of it) when I say that our char/float was pretty dam impressive. I would never have thought 8 or 9,000 paper roses stuck onto a tractor and trailer could look so good. The paperwork was finished off nicely by a dozen furry puppies stuffed with the local newspaper and stapled together (don't worry, no animals were harmed during this process). On the front of Coco's tractor in red, white and blue were the words 'La Grande Bretagne salue La Trimouille' with Dee's china Dalmatians sitting proudly and precariously on top.

At about 3pm, all of the floats and bands were arranged in line by Pascal Jaccard and his megaphone and in full sun and temperatures in the mid 30's, the procession began. To begin with there were not too many spectators and I'm sure some felt as I did, a little self conscious, as we walked along waving to 3 or 4 elderly residents looking at us all with slightly confused expressions on their faces. A state of mind that cannot have been help when James 'Cruella' Ayres sprang into view looking like Alice Cooper meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

As we approached the town, crowds got bigger and the general estimate seems to be that there were about a thousand people lining the streets. James who was getting more and more scary as his make up started to run, was catching terrified onlookers in his net and dabbing them with a black and white crayon to show they'd been 'de Villed'. Daniel and Luke as the robbers tried stealing puppies from the float, chased by Dee, while Ged looked very dignified on his bike. The rest of us threw confetti and offered sweets to the crowds. It was good to hear a lot of the onlookers clapping and calling 'bravo' as we went by.

The actual procession was very stop and start as each of the 3 bands had a chance to do their favourite numbers at certain points. This began to cause a problem for some of our group as shade was often limited. When it came to doing a second lap around the town some sadly, but sensibly sat it out. For the rest of us we were helped by bottles of water being handed out by helpers.

The day was finished off by a big party by the river and a 15 minute firework display that would have done credit to many towns a lot bigger than La Trimouille.

It's been a lot of work for the dedicated few and as with many things like this the initial reaction afterwards was 'never again'! Hopefully this will have mellowed by next year as the reaction in the town has been excellent. The feeling seems to be that the locals were pleased that we were taking part in their national day celebrations and possibly a little surprised that we had done such a good job on the float. And to confirm our new found talent of float making. A nearby town has asked if they can hire ours, along with the accessories, for their carnival. We are going to donate the hire charge to Pascal and the hardworking members of the Comité des fêtes.

Here's a few more photo's taken by the group on the day. As with the other pic's;

CLICK TO ENLARGE