War (what is it good for?)

The entire country is shut down today (except the pizza truck but that's a whole different story).  The French seem to put far greater significance on the signing of l'Armistice than do Americans.  Sure, we recognize Veteran's Day and we honor the brave service that all of America's veterans have given to our country.  Rather, where in America we honor all of our veterans from many wars, in France, this is Armistice Day.  They are celebrating the end of The Great War.

There is very little open.  On the little board outside our gate, where the town posts official announcements, there is a notice inviting all residents of the commune to a ceremony in the village, followed by "apertifs" (bien sur).  The kids are out of school, the town hall is closed, and the boulangerie is closed (and yes, we forgot to get an extra baguette yesterday, darnit).  

So it was in anticipation of this day, celebrating the laying down of arms and the welcoming of a hard fought peace across Europe some ninety years ago today, that I awoke at the first hint of dawn to...

...a veritable fusillade of gunfire.  Now, I've seen the hunters wandering through the vines the past several weeks, with their orange caps and green jackets.  And I've heard, at some point nearly every day, the echoing of a shotgun blast, sometimes two if ol' Pierre wasn't so straight with the first barrel.  But this... this had to be at least a half dozen different fellows -- everything from the apparently very near-sighted bonhomme with the semi-automatic (pop, pop, pop, popop!), to the dude that I swear to Yahweh had to be standing directly outside my window with a 12-guage (BAM! BAM!).  Needless to say, the kids didn't take advantage of the holiday to sleep in. I'm not sure if this is a country-wide way to celebrate the armistice or if we're just the lucky residents of a gun-happy commune but I do know that it was a *real* bad morning to be a wild boar, rabbit, or grouse.