Today was the annual spring Carnaval in our village! The spring carnival seems to be a rite of spring here because all of the small villages are celebrating their own too. It’s not like Carnival in Venice or Rio but a made-in-Puyloubier kind of event.
Since Christmas, kids in the village have been going to paper-mâché workshops at the library to help make decorations, shakers and piñatas with a team of local artists. These workshops are offered free of charge and our girls went three times to help. The organizing committee this year picked the theme of “Le Monde” and everyone – parents and kids – was encouraged to dress up like people from another country. This presented an interesting challenge on many fronts.
We didn’t come costume ready because we knew kids don’t celebrate Halloween here. If Va-loo-eh (Value) Vee-la-age (Village) or its equivalent exists here, I’ve never found it. So I had to summon my rusty Camp Cataraqui skills for making costumes out of not very much to figure out what to do. We decided that R. would be a Canadian hockey player (because she is one) and H. would wear some variation on something that looked tropical because she wanted something fun and colourful, she likes to do her own version of the hula, and the costume wasn’t going to be specific to a particular place or its people.
R is wearing her practice jersey from hockey camp last summer, a dog bandana with Maple Leafs on it from the Dollar Store (watch for it on Tuck on Canada Day here) around her neck, and H’s hockey gloves on strings. H. is wearing a bunch of stuff spanning the colours of rainbow sherbet and her “skirt” is made out of a plastic table cover that I cut into strips and stapled onto an elastic waist band. She loved it!
Then there was the problem of _my_ costume. I hate dressing up, always have. I felt like in high school the options were racy, clever, or cute. I’m not really built for cute, never felt comfortable in racy, and wasn’t that clever so I found costumes hard. Today I decided to “dress up” as a hockey/hula mom so I made this stuff and attached it to my very red fleece jacket. Every time I put it on I want to ask “does this jacket make me look like Elmo?”.
There were some pretty elaborate costumes on both parents and kids. At home, I think, when it comes to costumes there’s often an element of fun or humour attached to them and I think our three costumes all had this quality. Today some people were really dressed up and it was clear some people put a lot of time and effort into what they were wearing. Regardless, on we went!
The day began after lunch with (another free) workshop for kids with a troupe of professional drummers. Our girls were taught how to use large drums and they learned a range of rhythms that would be used in the parade. It all sounded samba-ish to me and the workshop was toe-tapping fun! I took this short video of the girls in the workshop and I laughed aloud when I watched it later because it absolutely captures our girls and where they are at right now.
The workshop was SOO-PUR, as they say it here, and the drums made the hour and half meander through our village so much more fun! I’m not really sure how it took us an hour and half to do a walk that normally takes less than ten minutes …
One of the many stops in the village during the parade. This is the square about 5 doors up from our house.
These REAL boy scouts were walking through the village and got stuck in the middle of one of the parade stops. This is them after they escaped! When I first saw them I thought they were a family dressed up as the Von Trapps.
After the village procession we all ended up at the Salons des Fêtes (the local community centre). There was more drumming and dancing outside, some snacks were served, and piñatas were cracked open. Then there was a DJ’ed dance party for the kids. I had no idea my kids knew so many French pop songs!
H. with L. watching some dancing.
R. in blue ducking from the confetti being thrown at her. In the foreground is her friend A. who was born in Texas and is keenly dressed as a cowboy.
The outdoor amphitheatre behind the Salon des Fêtes.
The kids are knackered and upstairs watching DC Cupcakes. This event, like the others that we’ve attended, was fun, energetic, and not quite like things we’ve experienced at home. Next weekend the Mayor is hosting some event that runs 10h30-16h30 for all the kids in the village ages 3-11. It’s billed as a “celebration of childhood” – it’s free, it’s a drop-off and it includes lunch. I think it should be billed as “a weekend gift to the adults of the village”.
It’s so hard to imagine something like either of these events at home. While our neighbourhood in Toronto has a fantastic creative spirit and lots of community minded people, the sheer numbers of kids are huge and there just isn’t a community space that could easily accommodate everyone. As an urban planner, I think a lot about scale and how can use it things to make cities more livable, sustainable, fun and also efficient. Our year in the village has given me an innate sense of how smaller-scaled places work. So far I can’t figure out how to translate the best of here to home but we’ve got three and half months to go so there’s still time.
Nous allons en France 