never a dull moment

As I was working around the house this morning, I heard some really strange music coming from the street below our window. It sounded like circus music. At first, I couldn't really see where it originated, but after it continued for a few minutes, I spotted an organ grinder down the alley street on the side of our apartment. In case you didn't catch that.....an organ grinder! I ran to get the camera but then I remembered that the digital card was in the reader (connected to the computer) and so my camera wasn't exactly ready for a quick shot. By the time I got it all together, he had turned the corner and moved down the street.

As strange as it seems (having an organ grinder playing down your street) it made sense to me because there is something strange going on down by the river this week. We heard about this "carnival" called "Quai des Guinguettes" from the other Americans here when we had dinner with them on Friday night. I wondered how they knew about these things.....

Last night we took a walk along the Rhone river, several blocks from our apartment. The walk along the river is just a concrete sidewalk, but for this occasion, they brought in tons of sand to make the river's edge look like a beach. Scattered along the river were tents - set up with bandstands and bars and food vendors. And beach chairs were all over the place. The guidebook said there were 31 tents, each with a different theme - latin music, hip-hop, marrocan, etc. and so people just pick a place, sit in the beach chairs, eat, drink, and watch the show. Some shows were bands playing, some were mimes, and there were theatre acts, and in some tents, people were just talking (the french love to talk!). We plan on going back to this thing tomorrow night.

So my guess is that the organ grinder strayed from his tent.