Wheeee!

Living here you tend to take for granted that any outdoor event you organise in July or August will be blessed with warm, sunny weather. Yesterday (backblipped) was a bit windy, but we spent the whole evening outdoors in light clothes and didn't even feel cold as we walked home at 1 a.m.

So I felt sorry for the organisers of the soapbox race in Ribaute, while simultaneously being glad that we hadn't had weather like this yesterday. "We'll only give up if it snows," one of the organisers told us firmly when asked. So we hung on under our umbrellas to see the show. Ribaute is on a bluff above the river, and the soapboxes (basically anything with wheels and no engine) bowled down the narrow streets and whizzed round the sharp bends. The wet roads made it rather more exciting as they skidded through puddles and crashed into straw bales. 

As you can see from my Flickr set, health and safety was as always paramount. One competitor felt that a smoking flare was a worthwhile addition to his creation, causing extra excitement when he lost control and crashed into the bales. The marshals had walkie-talkies (talkie walkies in French) but restricted themselves to calling "Attention !" to anyone wandering about in the street as a barely controlled go-cart piloted by a grinning middle-aged man hurtled towards them. Presumably residents of these streets had been told not to step out of their doors without looking carefully uphill first.

At the end of each round, the carts were hauled back up the hill in strings pulled by quads, before doing the whole circuit again. Lots of fun for men of all ages, and one little girl of eight in a pink go-cart -- apparently this is her 31st race.

After the second round the rain was very persistent so we returned home. It has been raining steadily and unseasonally ever since.