Vive la Révolution!

What a good night's sleep I had; at least 8 hours. Fed the neighbour's cat as she's on holiday and then put on my sun hat and went off to the Bastille celebrations. Thankfully, the ceremony at the war memorial where there's next to no shade, was short. Just enough time to greet all present, sing the Marseillaise and lay a wreath. Then the procession followed the brass band through the village to the Mairie. There is not much more shade on the Mairie forecourt either. Philippe, who was a 4* general, poor soul was in full uniform to present the "Military medal" to an old soldier. Diplomas were given and promotions recognised for serving fire officers as well. The Maire gave a speech about the shame of having had such a low rate of participation in the Presidential and General Elections when there are so many places where people can't vote or the elections are corrupt. It all ended with an apéritif and a couple of Sardanes. There was more sardane in the square late afternoon and a bar and disco at the recreation ground until 2am but I participated in neither.. The fireworks were postponed until next week as only half of them had been delivered!!!

Duty done, I met Nicole S and Yasmin to go to Besalú, a lovely medieval town over the border.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besal%C3%BA I suggested the Castell de Besalú restaurant with garden just at its start if we didn't want to go searching; after all, it was hot and nearly 2pm. Nicole preferred to walk around and check out other places first and of course, wouldn't you know, we came back to the first one! Lunch was excellent for 13€ and the garden a pleasant place to while away some time.
Refreshed, we set off to do a more leisurely trip around the town, looking at two of the three churches, the ruins of the Jewish baths and synagogue etc. Besalú makes much of it's Jewish history. There's even an annual festival but needless to say, back in the 14th and 15th centuries it was a story of tolerance moving on to separation and finally persecution. Follow this link if you're interested to know more http://www.redjuderias.org/google/google_maps_print/besalu-en.html
It's not all about old stones; there are a few shops selling souvenirs, upmarket foodstuffs and clothes. I bought myself a new dress, following my own inclinations colour wise rather than Nicole's advice. Yasmin was of the same opinion as me which maybe shows the difference between French and British taste.
We ended the visit with a cuppa on the main square.
Approaching the border on the way home, we could see a huge cloud of thick smoke which worryingly, signalled a forest fire. 350 fire officers including a brigade from the Spanish side fought the fire over nearly 470 acres (190 hectares); as yet the origin is unknown though the smart money is on it being deliberate. https://ban.jo/News/Europe/20170714/Massive-Forest-Fire-Erupts-In-Le-Boulou-France-Le-Boulou/ We were lucky enough to get back before both the main road and motorway were closed.
I was unlucky enough to find that I'd lost my glasses somewhere after buying my dress. It's too far to go back to Besalú and my first thought was "ah well, they were the spare pair that I got for 1€ extra when I bought my prescription specs; then I remembered that I was wearing them because I'd lost my "proper" ones when I was in UK at Christmas. Suppose I'll just have to shell out for some new ones though until then I'll have to make do with some off-the-shelf glasses. And to think, I usually wear my glasses on a string so as not to lose them!
Weather:
30°, sun