We made it back to Beaucaire for moules three times during our trip. Once was excellent at our usual spot, Nord/Sud but then we deviated which is always a mistake. We had D's father with us and his lovely girlfriend and we knew that they would not eat mussels but would enjoy the location and the view. So we ventured to another restaurant down the street but with the canal view. The food was very mediocre, but the view wonderful, and it was the spot that night for anyone with a dog.
So on one of our last nights we tried again for moules but drove into a parade grounds. It turns out that each year Beaucaire has a famous provence parade each year during July and we had driven into the traffic and people gathering for the parade, and the route would go just in front of our restaurant. D. parked and we walked back to the restaurant, parking ourselves along the street to watch the people watching the parade, and for us to watch the parade participants from very young to very old, people proud to walk, ride or dance in the event and having a wonderful time.
After it was over, we were finally able to get seated and eat a quick dinner. In all the crowd was quite well-behaved except a few young people, with the police chasing down one young man and his friends actually tried to intervene and physically touch the police officer. In the US that would provoke a very strong response, but in France, the police stayed amazingly calm but forceful in affecting their arrest. No weapons pulled, and the crowd certainly supported their actions.
The parade had everything, singers, dancers, horses, floats, but all provencal style with a theme of dancers from around the world. Of course the US was portrayed with country-western style dancers and music. We couldn't have hip-hop or jazz? or even Elvis? Oh well.
It was the end of our trip and we truly enjoyed the unexpected parade.
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