5 days of Fete de Capestang

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Angelina and cotton candy
Angelina and cotton candy

 

August 2-6 Capestang festivals ran their course in our village.

Many different bands on three different stages over the course of 5 days entertained tourists and locals at the yearly event. Serving food as beer and wine flowed freely, the events were a success.

The nightclub with a DJ was set up behind the square entertained youths until the wee hours each night of the festival and each morning the town cleaner sanitized the roads clean for the next evening’s party. They served tapas and their seats were packed full of people.

 

Each night in the square, they played music of a more traditional nature and older couples danced in pairs, as children ran around. The packed cafes with onlookers took in the atmosphere. The fair was off to one side and you could hear laughing children as you approached the area.

 

Off a side street was yet another stage and here they served up the food. Many days, the proceeds went to different sporting clubs in Capestang, including Daniel’s handball association. Cheap beer for 2Euros, 1Euro wine and mussels were on the menu.

We met up with Angelina’s friends from class the first night and enjoyed a sausage dinner and beers. I had to get home early to work the next day but the other families stayed out until 3:00am.

This event was so much fun for the little kids too, as they took turns on all three carnival rides and tested their luck at the fair games.

I gave the kids five euros to spend the first day and they managed to make it last a while before returning home for dinner. The next day I gave them each the same and Daniel tried endlessly to win a stuffed toy for our new kitten. He finally did, after seven tries and the whole five euros.

Mark from our neighbourhood, said well what about Angelina? He went off and came back with a stuffy for her too! Thank you so much Mark, Angelina loves her new stuffed animal.

Sunday the Market moved to the Canal Du Midi in front of the tourist office. More enjoyable in this location we see canal boats drift by with waving passengers onboard. Many stop to unload their passengers to buy a few things, making it a lively market indeed. You hear many languages in our small village and it feels nice to walk in the hot sun or under the plane trees and enjoy a typical southern France day.

Daniel enjoyed his first tilt-a-world experience except with no heavy safety regulation like in Canada. The kids were not strapped in, a giant moving inflated mattress was moving around in the middle for the kids to try to stand on during the ride and part of the fun was watching them fall over as the operator tried to shake them down with his remote control. I noticed this tilt-a-world ride was much faster than the ones I have seen in the past and as Daniel went around in circles, his little face flattened from the force. There was no fence around to keep the kids from falling under the ride either. In Canada, there would have been a fence. However, surprisingly there are no accidents as the French rely on common sense when it comes to this sort of festival. Parents tell their children to stand back and they do. It is something.

Each evening we stayed out late, woke up, got our chores done, then we napped from 2:00 until 5:00pm and back to the festival, we went.

Another night we went after dinner and enjoyed a few rides. Each day had great music and everyone from the village seemed to be there. Many familiar faces and tourists were there.

Sunday we went early and left early too as in the forecast was a thunderstorm. The ACDC cover band was rained out. Too bad to, as I heard them practice during the day and they rocked!

Alfonz surprised us, came home from Hungary 5 days early, and took us out for the last day of the festivals. We stayed out with our B&B couple Greet and Stephan from Belgium until 1:30am dancing the night away to the cool tunes of a retro band.

 

All in all the festivals were a big part of our summer and we enjoyed the free entertainment, the cheap food and drinks as well as seeing our community out enjoying themselves.

 

That’s Hamori!

 

 

 


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