Bastille weekend!

Hi everyone, bit of a long post again - sorry!
On Saturday Kate, Vince and I went over to Chatelleraut for the morning. We had a quick wander around the market and got some vegetables that weren't already growing in the garden before going straight to the coffee shop, after all it was boiling outside! We went to Kate and Vince's regular café next to the market square - I say regular but they hadn't been in months - and they were greeted by the owner like old friends still. Just like the waiter in Caen he knew everyone by name and clearly loved his job. What I didn't realise is that in France you have to go to study for any sort of job. You can't just be a waitress on weekends for some extra cash, you need to be qualified to be a waitress!
Once we'd finished there Kate and Vince went to the supermarket while I had a look around. It's a nice enough town, with a river running through it, plenty of nice buildings and cafés galore. Unfortunately the supermarket has caused a few local shops to close but I think that's the case everywhere. On my way back to the planned meeting place I did get a little slowed down but that was due to the domestic going on on the street. There was a huge smash and lots of banging then s guy came running out of the house in front shouting and waving his arms around. He was followed by another guy doing the same then a woman stood shouting from the doorway. I have no idea what was going on but I got out of the way before anyone else asked me for the story.
We made it home without further incident and got back just in time for Tams in, Dale and Leanna to arrive. They're also expats and live in St Gervais - the nearest town to the house. They came over for a coffee and to pick up some old presents for Leanna before rushing off a couple of hours later to prepare food for Bastille Day fireworks in the village.
After spending a little time with the kittens we went over to Tamsin and Dale's for dinner before the fireworks. When we arrived Tim and Brett (and Davide i think) were already there. Tim had recently bought a huge house in Chatellerault to renovate. It needs a lot of work but for 50,00€ that's s good deal. Brett is s carpenter from the UK who decided to come and help and Davide lives near Tamsin and Dale's.
We sat and talked in the garden for a while, mostly about travel, building and music - Tim used to play in the Noisettes and Kate and Vince are both great musicians.
Another couple of their friends showed up Terry and Sharon) but we were the only ones to stay for dinner - vegetable curry with couscous and salad. We wandered down to the pond just in time for the fireworks to start. It was a small local event so there wasn't a huge amount of fireworks but there was some fun, cheese music and the kids did a lantern procession - it really had that quaint village feel.
Once the fireworks finished we went back to Tams in and Dale's for a quick cuppa then it was back home and straight to bed. Although one of the cats - Aurora decided to join me in the garden house and moved around all night.
We had a bit of a late start on Sunday but once we had breakfast we headed out to one of the other towns nearby where they had a big antique/ car boot sale and a vintage car rally!
We browsed the stalls first and Kate found a couple of decorative bargains for the house. They also found a pretty cool 1930's chandelier which was priced at 80€ - not bad when it would have been at least a few hundred in any London antique store. The guy even told Vince that he would take it down to 60€ if Vince could play something good on the accordion he'd been eyeing up. We left him to think about it and went to find a drink. The cheapest thing there was the rosé at 1€ a glass, even the water cost more! As we wandered around a bit more we bumped into Sharon and Terry who had a stall there and chatted to them a little before going to look at the cars.
There really were some beautiful cars there from the cute little Citroen 2CVs to a gorgeous pair of classic Opals and even a stray Ford Anglia (in the same colour as the one out of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). There was also an old flying boat sport of thing.
We went back to try and bargain down the chandelier but the guy was haggling it down without any prompting - we got it to 30€ and were quite happy with that little deal.
Once we'd finished there it was time to go back to the house to chill out for a bit before another evening out! We headed over to Tim's new place in Chatelleraut to watch the Bastille Day fireworks on the bridge there. All in all there was me, Kate, Vince, Tim (obviously), Tim's son, Brett, Terry and Sharon, Tams in, Dale and Leanna, and a couple of Tim and Brett's friends from the town. Everyone had brought food and drink for throughout the evening and we had a nice time chatting about this and that until the fireworks began. It was a pretty impressive display, obviously they had a bigger budget than St Gervais though the ones the previous night were still nice. The music was a lot more dramatic  and the flashes lit up the bridge brilliantly but before too long the show came to an end. After a little more conversation it was time to head home but I hope to see everyone again at some point in the future.