The annual "Naval Combat Fleuri" was held in Villefranche last Monday. The first event of the day was the arrival of a couple of marching bands at l'Octroi (the main drag and plaza). There were a couple of neat floral arrangements. Here is Jane with one of them.
The first marching band was from Italy and also from another era.
But they were very good at throwing their flags in the air and catching them without hitting any spectators.
After watching this group for awhile, we had to do some shopping so we could have lunch before the actual boat parade. From our apartment we watched the people coming from the train station through security to get to the waterfront from which they could watch the parade. We were invited to view the parade from the apartment of some friends who were just above the waterfront at the center of the activity. As with all events in France now where there are lots of people, there was lots of security.
These officers were checking people entering the waterfront from the street directly below the apartment from which we were watching. They were amazingly disciplined. At all times at least one of them was looking away from the parade at the buildings overlooking the route. The boats got ready in a small marina area used primarily by the boats from the cruise ships in season.
It is hard to tell from my pictures how many people there were. It was a lot. Right on the water, they were five or six deep along the about 5 blocks of the route. In addition there were people wandering on the street. While waiting for the boat parade to start the crowed was entertained by several marching bands, including the one we had seen earlier. One of the bands, consisting of teenage girls from Eastern Europe, stole the show with their fantastic drumming and dancing.
At the start of the parade, the boats make a pass in single file along the waterfront to the cheers from the crowds.
After a boat has made its initial run past the crowd, it joins the others milling around waiting for the rest to finish.
Once all are done, the "battle" begins as the beautiful floral masterpieces are torn apart and thrown into the crowd. This maneuver requires the boats to go right next to the shore which has a deep drop off but consists of huge boulders. If you look closely, you can see the man in the bow has just thrown a large bunch of mimosa (a beautiful yellow flower that is in full bloom around here now).
This continues for a long time until most of the flowers on the boats have been thrown. Many of them do not make the shore and end up in the water.
At the end of the day everybody is happy and most of the crowd goes home with beautiful bouquets.
Great fun was had by all!!!
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
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