The 11th November is a bank holiday here in France - the second of two holidays to remember those who gave their lives for France (the other being 8th May, or Victory in Europe Day). They are not quite so fixated on a two minute silence at 11am, not least as in a normal year some dignitaries and local marching bands have to attend more than one ceremony, so they can be at any time from about 9:30am to midday. Ceremonies are well attended by local elected officials, the uniformed public services, the junior council and the old combatants, who wear their campaign medals and their best clothes. Once wreaths have been laid and a few words said, there is then a vin d'honneur for those not going on to another ceremony.
Each commune was required by law to set up a war memorial in the years following the Great War, and to simplify things, the Government made available a catalogue of different styles, so it is quite common for towns across the country to have the same soldier or group of soldiers on a plinth. This was an interesting snippet from a recent lunchtime news programme. This is Baugé's war memorial, photographed on Saturday, next to the Tribunal.
This year the ceremonial has had to be much reduced, no vin d'honneur, and I could not track down when the wreaths would be laid in the village - turns out sometime between 10am and 11:15am. It is near the cemetery so I photographed it yesterday on my walk, before the wreaths had been laid, but the flags were out already.
People have taken advantage of the bank holiday though, and when I went out for my walk, I saw more than I normally see, taking advantage of a fine afternoon to stretch their legs and get a change of scene. I didn't go as far today - just 2.5 kilometres - as I was mixing up the routes a bit. I may well have a rant soon about the relative ease (or not) of getting a different walk and one's potential full allowed distance, but not today! Instead I found some more spindle berries but closer to where I could photograph them, so here is a better view. The pink is almost synthetic and you can just see on one, that the seed inside is a bright orange. They are still poisonous mind you!
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