Currently Maine et Loire is facing severe water restrictions due to the drought - since March we have had perhaps an inch of rain in total, which is not enough to get grass, grains and maize growing well, while the market gardens near La Loire are having a difficult and expensive time of it. Bauge itself had magnificent weather for their Millenium celebrations on the 13th and 14th July, so why did the much needed rain have to fall on Saturday when Vieil Bauge had its own village fun day?
There were a good number of hardy folk at the petanque competition that started at 1:30pm, so that although the semi finals and final were played out under torrential rain, the participants were too involved (and too well lubricated) to care all that much. The dog obedience and agility show, that was the novelty this year, ran in front of a hardy few who got soaked while appreciating that all the dogs would have been eliminated in proper competition as they went the wrong way round jumps or generally misbehaved - it was a wonderful demonstration.
Many had pre-booked their dinners so from about 6pm people started to converge on the party site.
Until we re-arranged the catering tent, they were not prepared to approach for their drinks however, but once that was sorted, they came.
I can be a bit acerbic about the Cadets de Baugois, but this jolly band made the best of things by cramming themselves into the trailer we had hired for the dance band (who had relocated to the Community Centre), and instead of marching and playing, just played. They did jolly well and were more in tune than usual. Of course the challenge was to find a place for the conductor.
This didn't work entirely well, so he tried another option, where he could use both hands.
He did end up in the trailer with the band in the end, but UK Health and Safety would probably have been horrified. People took it all in good part, and some thought about dancing.
But in the end, as the fireworks were cancelled, people either drifted off home or went to the Community Centre to dance, while we got to eat our dinners and then dismantled some of the shelters and put away the vulnerable or valuable goods.
It was a shame the party was rained on, but at least we were able to ensure that a large part of the day's festivities carried on. Durtal's River Festival had to be cancelled completely, and the decorated boats will not be seen at all this year, which must be very frustrating for the many volunteers who put in hours of work creating them.
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