May Day

Friday, May 1st, was May Day, or as they call it here, "fete du travail." I've always known it as socialist labor day, but unlike labor day in the U.S., they take it seriously here. There are no sales, in fact, all the stores are closed. All of them, except florists, because exchanging lilies of the valley is a tradition here, a holdover from the pagan origins of the spring holiday, I assume. Only recently bakeries are also allowed to be open, because bread is national fetish. Bars are also open because everyone is off work and needs something to do. Workers are supposed to be paid double on the day and get another day off as well. 

So Friday morning was eerily quiet when we woke up. There were no delivery trucks or trash trucks rumbling down the streets, there was virtually zero vehicular traffic and very few pedestrians either since no one was going to work. It was more quiet than Christmas. We had made certain to get all the shopping we'd need done on the day before. Bailey and I went on our usual morning walk but we had the streets and the park mostly to ourselves. 

In the afternoon we walked to Wazemmes (another quartier or part of Lille) because the public transport system wasn't running, for the "fete de la soupe." It's an annual street festival where various civic groups sell homemade soup and promote themselves. The groups had a very definite left wing slant, which was very nice to see. There was not a MAGA Republican anywhere in sight, and that was very nice. There was a good crowd because there was not much else going on in town. We didn't get any soup but did have a couple of beers and walked back home. 

The Rotary Club was there too. I have no idea what they do in France, or elsewhere for that matter.

There were several antifascist groups present, all with soup.

And "woke" is not a dirty word here.

A group that supports gay kids rejected by their families.

The golden ladle awards and jars of soup for the judging in the background.

The following pictures are from a long bike ride I took down the canal path the other day. I stopped to take a few pictures, mostly of swans and flowers.

Swans look funny when they are feeding off the bottom.

A black swan

Wild poppies are coming into bloom.

Bailey looking out the window.