Sur le pont...

...d'Avignon Compiègne...

It's a new version of the song. Yesterday, Sept. 10, Compiègne had a huge festival for the opening of the new bridge. I kid you not, there was a full ceremony involving all of the important people of Compiègne followed with a very long set of speeches, music, just the right amount of campaigners, free food and drinks!, "jousting," fireworks, and a really weird play thing. All for a bridge. Oh and free glow sticks! 

not how I usually go water skiing, but hey it worked

Ale and I headed to the opening ceremony around 11 and met up with a few others after. Once the speeches started and never ended, we decided to go walk through the Saturday market instead. Let's face it, spending money is so much better than listening to some old guy talk about the history of the bridge. I only bought an ice cream though. I did find a super cute dress, that Ale really wanted me to buy, only so she could borrow it I think, and a pair of shoes. I resisted the temptations and decided not to get them. I figured spending 2.20 euros on ice cream was a good buy for the day. 

After our mini shopping spree and walking around the town, we headed back to the bridge to see what was going on. Interesting enough, I saw something that I have never seen before - jousting in the water with boats. 

After the "jousting" there was not too much going on, so a whole bunch of us went back to David's (a friend from Mexico) and hung out for awhile, until it got dark. We then headed back to the bridge for the fireworks and acrobatic presentation. Contrary to how the US does fireworks, all at one time, the French like to shoot of a few, do some sort of play/acrobatic presentation/tell a story, and then do a few more, go back to the play, more fireworks, and so on for about an hour and a half. Let me just say that the fireworks took up about 10 minutes of that. I was very disappointed and just wanted to see the fireworks. I did get a free glow stick out of it and the bridge looked really pretty all lit up.

I am just waiting for the festival for the new rond-point (rotary) that they just opened near school. Like France really needs another one. It is their favorite roadway structure.