Festival of Saint Pierre -25th June 2011

Celebrating Saint Pierre! The festivities begin in the Gesu Catholic Church in the Le Port followed by a procession to Les Ponchettes beach and the burning of a wooden boat to honor the patron saint.

We started our Saturday night by walking the dreaded Castle Hill where we stumbled upon another festival of some sort, not sure what type of festival as it was all in French. Hubby thought it may have to do with politics but he was not to sure. All we could see were lots of food and drink stalls no food regulations were in place as they were smoking as they served and one could see no gloves or hand washing...we had already eaten thankfully! Basically everyone was getting plastered and having a great time. This festival went all weekend as when I ran the hill and yes I said RAN from top to bottom with out stopping (Mark & Chris did you here what i just said) on Monday morning the site at the top was one of complete mess and I think they did have a good time going by the amount of empty condom packets I saw...so glad I left Russ with the kids at home.

Anyway back to St Pierre we then ventured down the other side of the hill to the St Pierre festival, at the Gesu Church the mass was in French but I was able to get the gist of things. The church was beautiful inside and I really enjoyed sitting listening even though I couldn't understand. At the conclusion of the mass they carried a statue of St Pierre out of the church through a guard of honour. The guard of honour comprised of sailors dressed in blue and white striped tops and white pants holding red oars. The statue was carried down to the waters edge at the Le Port where it was placed on a boat and was taken out to sea (we are not sure what happened to the statue once out of the Port) although it was escorted by little sailing boats which had large bouquets of flowers on their decks. While waiting for the boats to return there was music and dancing. Daughter no. 2 was lucky to receive a flower from one of the sailors....her sister was so not happy! Once the sailing boats had returned the priest came down to the water and stood next to the wooden boat they were about to set fire to, he said a prayer and the boat was lit. It burned rapidly and was a great delight to all watching.

We then made our way home walking along The Promenade des Anglais which was alive with people walking and there were hundreds on the beach having picnics and enjoying the evening.

Warmly,
The Harpers :)
Ps photos to follow later don't have access to down load any at the moment