Continuing the tradition of local festivals, last weekend was the annual Fêtes des Fleurs in Cazères, which consists of a variety of activities, including a parade of floats adorned with flowers. Despite being small, the parade was fun and entertaining. In sharp contrast to American parades, where the parade route is guarded vehemently by police and barriers, the Fêtes des Fleurs parade was relaxed, low key and hardly regulated.
In fact, much of the parade seemed to consist of people just enjoying themselves, like this group of ladies, who were walking along, laughing and having a good time and seemed somewhat oblivious to the fact that they were in the middle of a parade. Here they stopped for a quick snapshot, before continuing on to the next camera person who was waiting another 5 feet down the road.
I milled in and out of the paraders for most of the time, which was far more fun than just standing in a crowd of sweaty people, trying to look over someone's shoulder to see the floats roll by. Granted, we were in a small town, with a small parade and this may not be representative of the greater French culture, but I would say that it was refreshing.
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