WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5
A leisurely walk took us back to Fort St. Jean on a shockingly warm day. It was T-shirt weather; people swam in the sea off the Fort wall. Chloe wasn’t feeling well so we took it easy, lunch on a bench on the Fort wall, then back inside the Fort where we sat on concrete stairs near the building with Mohammid Kacimi’s exhibition. It became apparent to me why the buildings are painted white, and white stones, like that used to construct the Fort, are ubiquitous; it’s the heat. I was sweating while I drank my coffee. Chloe stretched out on her back and fell asleep for an hour. I drew and watched families enjoying the sunshine, kids playing on the cement stairs and in the courtyards.
BACK IN TIME
The port was buzzing with people, mostly mothers and their children, as we walked back through the Christmas market. It was astonishing how many huts were selling figurines, an entire length of the boardwalk, 10 in a row. An old man dressed in Basque attire led a couple of very old donkeys with children on their backs. Free rides for the children. It was strange to see these dirty donkeys, that looked like they could die at any moment, walking among the crowd.
We also passed a little portable box theater with a puppet performance: a wooden violin-playing puppet, a wooden Pinocchio, and a wooden dog puppet. The dog and Pinocchio danced while the musician played his violin. The masterful puppeteer could have been Italian, or French, though the few words he spoke were English. After the puppet performance, he played spoons. Had we returned to the 1800s?
