Narbonne France

19^th November

When we arrived at the aire we are staying at here in Narbonne, there was a large  empty asphalted space outside a hall, (we are beside a sports park/centre). When we went to bed the first night, iot was the same, but when we woke in the morning a long convoy of red trucks with AMAR written on the side were pulling up. As we ate our breakfast watching out the window, more and more vehicles with caravan trailers and the like were pulling up until it was a sea of red white and blue.  We went out to the supermarket and McDonalds (for the wifi only, honestly) and when we returned a few hours later there was a red and white striped, circular, “big top”  erected, and as the afternoon progressed more circular tents, prefabs with bright signage and as the evening came, brightly coloured lights heralding the arrival of the AMAR circus.

We noticed a poster the next morning advertising that you could visit their “zoo” for 2 euro which we thought we might do later, but weren’t so sure about going to the circus proper. The last circus we went to was a few years ago at Hagley Park in Christchurch, it was a bit disappointing with trapeze artists and the highlight for me, dogs playing soccer.

In the morning (yesterday 18^th) Hilary and I biked into Narbonne town (population 46,000) an old city with evidence of Roman occupation and some lovely old buildings in the French style, rather than Spanish (obviously) which we had become used to. It was a nice change actually, it felt a bit like “new” stuff again. It was a cool autumn morning so we donned extra layers and wore gloves so our fingers didn’t get too cold and set off along a purpose built cycle track into the centre ville. The bike track arrives at the town at the canal side, with a variety of pretty boats tied up at its edge, underneath lovely old trees with just a few golden leaves remaining and the rest at there feet creating a deep carpet to crunch through.

We locked our bikes to a fence overlooking the canal and went by foot into the town, the population is similar to Napier I think, but the feel completely different, I suspect it is the narrow streets with highish buildings which gives it a more compact feel, and of course the towering 17^th century (I think it was, I must check it out) castle buildings and huge church. We browsed through the town stopping to go into a shop selling rocks and crystals which had a fine array of products, very eye-catching and very tempting, though we managed to resist. One piece in particular took our fancy, it was a carved bear (grizzly/brown type) made from labradorite. It was only small, maybe 5cm long and about 4cm high. It sounds kiche but it was really quite beautiful and being Labradorite it shone different (subtle) colours from different angles ( a bit like a hologram but not so bright). We were very tempted but at 95 euro we decided to consider it a bit more over the next day.

From here we window shopped, looking at all sorts of interesting and different footwear in particular, (I think in the short street we walked up there must have been 5 or 6 if not more, shoe shops!!!!) we were interested particularly in boots as I only have my runners in use at the moment and I have bought some new French clothes which I can’t wear until I have appropriate footwear!!! There were quite a few pairs which took my fancy, but I wasn’t in the mood to try on boots so instead we continued on until we found a square with coffee shops and patisseries abounding. We had to sample some of the local produce, I had a lovely café aux lait which came with a small muffin type thing, Hilary had a Tarte du Fraise absolutely gorgeous both to look at and eat. We sat outside and consumed our purchases, chatting and watching the world go by, before going back inside to buy a Tarte du fraise for Di and some bread for lunch.

We wandered slowly back to our bikes, past the church which looked as if it would be worth a visit but was just closing for lunch (12-2pm) so we returned to our bikes, saddled up and biked back to the truck (only a few minutes) where Di was up to her elbows in memorabilia which she was preparing for pasting into our book.

Boats on the canal in Narbonne

The patisserie where we had coffee and strawberry tart

The church (actually 13th-14th century

After lunch Di did some more book, I started some stitching (before falling asleep) and Hilary read some more, before being told to stop and to have a siesta as she is very pale and sleep deprived. To our surprise, snores started emitting from her direction not too long later, and continued for two hours until Di thought it was time to wake her, so put on some music.

Meanwhile I awoke and feeling a bit seedy ( as you do after a daytime nap) decided I ought to go down to McDonalds (five minute bike ride) and send some emails Hilary had composed, and check my and Di’s emails. This I did, and then called in at the supermarket for some yoghurt to go with our spicy chicken korma we were having for dinner.  While out I checked out the circus as we had told Hilary if she had a sleep we would go to the circus as we had missed many zoos and other  child oriented activities.  I went back to the truck and Hilary and I went over to the circus to see if there were any tickets for the show that night. Somewhat reluctantly we parted with 45 euro  and went home (the truck) for dinner.

The show started at 8.30pm and as the seat numbers weren’t allocated we decided to go over a bit early to be sure of a good seat, so we headed across the road at about 8. The lights were on, the music playing, pop-corn smells wafting on the breeze, and the hot sugary smells of churros and candy-floss mingling with the excited chatter of the arriving crowd. We joined the small queue and entered the big top, to be hit by a blast of warm air and a visual  and aural spectacle, lights and colour, live band music, circus workers in Beatles type jackets selling popcorn and drinks, bright spinning glow-fans, and other circus essentials. 

The roadside vision

The ring before the show started

We sat on our bench seats and waited expectantly, the first sign of action, two monkey men climbing up into the heights to work the spot lights a few minutes before the show started. Of course the compere (dressed in a blue Beatles jacket and brightly lit by a white spot-light) spoke only in very fast excitable French, but that didn’t matter, the show was about to start. We weren’t sure what would be first on, but the stage/ring was set up with cages and netting on the top, six metal stands and a metal cage/tunnel leading into the ring from behind the velvet curtains out the back of the stage. We thought there might be a large wild animal or something, but knowing NZ circuses where only domestic animals are allowed we weren’t holding our breath.

The lights went down, the spots came on, and out of the darkness came a huge and glorious tiger!!!!, followed by another….and another….and another….and another…. And finally one more…. Six glorious beasts emerged, roaring occasionally, and accompanied by the tiger tamer dressed in black with a whip and a stick. He didn’t use these on the animals at all, just had them there to remind them to behave I guess. It was fantastic (probably not at all PC…. But stunning) to see these huge beasts hopping up onto stands, walking around, doing “high-fives”  yet still looking as though if the tamer really annoyed them they’d have his head off in a second.

As they dismantled this stage set up, a clown came out and threw a big blow up cube around the crowd like a giant square beach-ball. Next up was a troupe of child gymnasts, probably the low point of the show, but still amazing with their tumbling, and leaping and bending!!!

The elegant and not so  ....

The elegant white horses

After the gymnasts out trotted four regal white horse with four (far from regal) fallabellas (little fat ponies (the smallest horse in the world, they get to 71cm at the shoulder ).  The ring master got them to put on a stunning display of weaving, trotting, plaiting themselves around each other, he got the white horses to stand still perpendicular to the ring edge and the four fellabeallas played tunnels with them,  he got two of the white horses to walk along on their hind legs (and then one of the fellabellas came back and did the same,( they were like the clowns of the show, probably unkindly said!!!).

The "red ribbon roast" ad

We had a break from four legged animals and a lithe young woman came out and rolled herself around in a red ribbon suspended from the sky, unwinding rapidly to the floor, twisting herself up, hanging sideways, you know those usual party tricks one performs when the evening is getting a bit staid.

The "dead elephant" you can just see a whisp of dog hair on his left rear leg

The toy elephants

Then the clown came back with three elephants, miniature not alive type elephants, and he popped them down on the ground and waited for them to do something. Of course nothing did, so he pantomimed winding one up with a key, and set it up on the wall of the ring, and away it went, running wildly around the edge, then he lifted it down and it went around the inside of the ring faster and faster until it dropped down, spent. He re-wound it and way it went again, trotting elephant (dog) style until spent again. He tried to rewind it a third time, but it had died, so he pantomimed grieving for it. At the end of the skit he “undressed” the elephant to reveal a very fluffy and animated poodle, it was a great hilarious display, had us rolling in our seats!!!!!

We had hoped their might have been a real elephant in the show, but I guess that was too much to ask, so we were quite satisfied with the pseudo elephant, it really was quite fun!!!

Well low and behold, who should trot out next to entertain us? But two large elephants!!!! Real ones this time!!!!!!!  They sat on stools, danced, did dressage, did hand-stands and just generally strutted their stuff, again very impressive and wonderful to be treated to such a spectacle of animals which we would never get to see in New Zealand (I’m torn between the PC thing and enjoying the display, but they all looked very loved and in great health…….(and I loved it!!!!!!) sorry all you animal rights people.

An elephant beginning a hand stand

The trapeze artistes performed next with another impressive display of twists and turns and catches high above the arena floor, timing and grace impeccable.  There were a couple of displays of dance/gymnastics/ one with a man and woman doing floor gymnastics, a display again of strength and grace with handstands, one handed press-up things with someone attached, and what can only be described as contortions of the body showing off impressive physiques. 

The trapeze artistes

The bloke then did a routine on a pole which was amazing (as was his body). His strength and grace something to behold, he could rotate parallel with the floor holding on with his arms, lift his body up so he was upside down, using his arm and abdo muscles (which were like something from a Greek statue) … can’t really describe it all suffice to say it impressed (have I said, so did his body???) .

The bod

The last display was something completely different, a hollow, metal  cagey thing that you could see inside, sphere  shaped, was pulled into the ring, it had a ramp going up into it. We speculated about what might be going to happen, but didn’t come close. Next a motor bike arrived and raced up the ramp into the sphere. The rider did a spectacular display of round and round, upside down, criss-cross racing which made my blood pressure rise and I wondered why his carotids didn’t burst. Once he was finished he was joined by another, and they did criss –crosses and swoops, in perfect unison, managing in a tiny space to keep out of each other’s way. Then they were joined by a third rider, there was barely room for the three bikes in the sphere together, but they managed without mishap to then race around, chasing each other’s tails virtually, then swooping down and criss crossing with each other, plaiting almost, then just to make it harder they turned off the lights and all you could see was a stream of white headlights and red tail lights as these three blokes spun around and around, chopping and changing, inches from each other, engines screaming………………. A spectacular finale to an absolutely amazing show.

The sphere sans motorbikes