La Fete de la Sigogne et 14 Julliet

This weekend was a big festival weekend not only because it was the 14th July (Bastille Day, just in case your history is failing you), it was also the the weekend of the fete in Sigogne, and surprise surprise this was very good and a bit different to the usual fete that we visit around the area. This was called La Fete de Battage, a sort of harvest festival with demonstrations of old farming methods. To begin the day there was a tractor parade of some 30 machines of varying ages and most people driving them were in turn of the century clothing, the last century that is…

There was a special open air mass to bless the harvest from the land, in our case that was wheat, sunflowers, animals, some vegetables and of course grapes. Then in the afternoon there was a demonstration of farming the old fashioned way with horses pulling early mechanised harvesting equipment, old tractors pulling even older wooden carts laden with wheat. The carts would have been pulled by horses or bulls originally, but it was 35 degrees so the tractors did it. The wheat was then loaded by hand, or should I say pitch fork, into a threshing machine powered by a steam engine which delivered the power to the thresher via massive leather belts. The thresher separated the grains from the chaff, and bailed the left over hay and bagged the grain for the mill. We also had a baker on site baking bread in a very old portable steel plate oven, so the only thing missing from the whole process from field to table was the mill to grind the grain into flour. It was very interesting, especially for a machine geek like me, and it was more or less all done by the village folk of Sigogne and the surrounding area.

We told Fleur there will be ponies at the fete as well and after initially deciding she wanted to ride one on the way to the fete she announced that she had changed her mind and didn’t want to ride one after all. Well when we saw the ponies, which were from the local stables, amazingly enough Fleur changed her mind again and wanted to ride one. This is a first because up to now she has been afraid of horses, ponies and donkeys. So, another breakthrough for a little girl of four and a half… she liked it so much that she wanted another go, but sadly because of the heat the ponies had gone back to their stables, but we know their address so perhaps Fleur can go with Franca for some riding lessons, if she wants…

Saturday night was the celebration of the 14th of July and thanks to my travelling partners Sue and Chad on the Friday evening Ryanair commuter flight we were in Jarnac at 11:00pm to watch the firework display along with thousands and thousands of others, I had no idea so many people lived in the local area. The firework display was good though not on a par with the 5th of November Blackheath displays we have seen before, but then Jarnac’s budget was no doubt not on the same scale. That said it was a very good 15 minute display and Fleur is no longer afraid of fireworks, so she enjoyed herself and she was fast asleep in the car on the way back home. It was amusing to see the procession of cars heading back to Sigogne after the display, I don’t think I have seen so many cars on the road to Sigogne at the same time before.

The weather the whole weekend was fantastic both days were over 30 degrees the whole time, though true to form I am sitting at a wet La Rochelle airport this morning, no time to visit a store today as I am trying out the Easyjet flight to London Gatwick, which goes earlier than the Ryanair flight. It has got off to an inauspicious start as I could not use the web checkin facilites which meant getting to the airport extra early, hence no store visit, I can hear the disappointment, to check in the old fashioned way. I hope it works for the flight on Friday or I have a problem because I do not have time to get to Gatwick 2 hours before the flight, well Stellios lets see what happens…