Eve of Bastille Day...
Celebrations throughout France
This small town in the southern Touraine celebrates the Eve of Bastille Day with a torch lit, drum beating procession around the town's boundaries. Many join in... although with the town being more en retraite the less agile, who make up a greater number of the population, throw open their windows, raise an arm in salute - or a glass - and shout "Vive la France!" with gusto.
As if the drumming, marching, cheering and clinking of glasses wasn't enough... the cacophony will reach a crescendo with a superb firework display followed by a relaxing dance under the stars and tilleul trees... and I'll be there.
One of the nicest things about this part of France is that everybody kisses one another... usually four times, though only twice if you're new to the neighbourhood, more reserved, or elderly... and not shaking hands with the menfolk every day will make you more the subject of gossip than if you had had an affair with one of their wives or daughters! But that rarely happens here... my theories are that a) the practice of kissing in public dispels the need - or the urge - to lust after the opposite sex... and b) the summer heat drains one's body, and ardour, of most of its determination.
But to the first image above... I'm not sure about it but it struck a chord the moment I added a red border in Photoshop... and the colour spilled into half the image's lighter tones. I thought... OK... bleu, blanc et rouge are the colours of the French tricolour - the colours symbolising the nobility, the clergy and the people - so why not add some blue in Photoshop too.
However, due to my dislike of software toys (not that Photoshop CS is a toy at several hundred pounds / dollars / euros) I prefer the original scanned monochrome image of the procession marching up our Grande Rue. The manipulated image just reminds me of a theatre poster... the black-and-white image reminds me of an evening of joy, and of being there. There's actually quite an important lesson to be learnt from the photojournalist's anecdotal quip in answer to the typically inane question of what exposure would he use... the answer, stated much more truthfully than a lens aperture and camera shutter speed was, "f/8 and be there!" I will... with or without my M3.
You can find out more about How to Celebrate Bastille Day here.
9:44:34 PM 
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