Fêtes de Saint-Roch

Montpellier has been celebrating Saint-Roch since Wednesday. Today is the last day of the celebrations. Animals will be blessed this morning before Saint-Roch church, and in the afternoon there will be a lecture in the "salle Pétrarque."

Yesterday I attended the procession. It was very different from the procession I had attended last year. There were stops in every church on the "route" of the procession. The streets were absolutely crowded.

For the first time in my life I could enter the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs, sometimes called the French Sixtin Chapel because of the painted ceiling. It is a real wonder. You can see a few photos by clicking on the link.

I met there a young English teacher from Italy. She looks like Ségolène Royal, who could have been French president if more people had voted for her a few months ago. I took dozens of photos of the extraordinary chapel and of the pretty young woman. When I came back home I made a big mistake. Thinking that I had uploaded all the photos on my computer, I deleted them and formated the card. I was so sad..........

Anyway..... French people like their past. I saw lots of people in medieval costumes. Very beautiful and colorful.

The statues of the Virgin Mary and that of Saint-Roch are carried by people all around the city. The barons de Caravetes participate in the procession. They are made up of people whose families have been "from" Montpellier for three or four generations (I need to check). There were also people from other cities and many musicians from Italy.

It is a wonderful event, which allows us to meet a lot of nice people.