Late fire

Our village always seems to do things a little differently from others, and tonight we had our St Jean bonfire which other towns and villages throughout the Midi and Spain had last week. The wood had been standing there for several weeks and, as someone said, it was surprising that no one had lit it before or taken some of the wood for barbecues, but it was all still there and it was lit tonight as darkness fell, a huge tower of flame from a pile of vine wood and old pallets that took the chill off the evening air by the river. As it died down enough for people to approach they encircled it and danced around it in an ancient pagan tradition. It was too wide for the other tradition - to jump over the embers, but perhaps later tonight some of the younger people will do that!