Early Birds

Back, for the weekend, at the annual book fair at Brive la Gaillarde - the second biggest in France. Too much gets eaten and drunk, and too many hours are spent at my publisher's stand signing endless books, with the noise of a hundred thousand people crashing around my head. Shouldn't complain, because lots of books are being sold, but my ears were ringing as I went to bed on Friday night in a local hotel. I was up again at the crack of dawn to get my car into the underground car park early, and this was the queue already forming to get into the fair before it opened. I needed to have the car close to make a quick getaway at the end of the day to get back home for a wedding dinner. Unfortunately, I missed the wedding itself - the first time two men had been married in our local Mairie. The mayor refused to perform the ceremony because it was against his beliefs, so his adjoint had to do it. Amazingly, outside the fair, there was still a huge queue to get in as I sneaked off in the dark at 6pm (it doesn't close till 8pm). I am back tomorrow for another full day, and doubtless there will be another queue lining up as I arrive early to get parked. People in France like their books. Thank goodness!