Saturday lunch at the ham man again, this time alone as Marcel and Carrie had gone to Spain, presumably to get closer to the source of the jamon. Still no sign of the elusive florist and I’m beginning to wonder about the hallucinatory powers of Serrano. After lunch, a café in the Republique and then a walk. I’m seeing more Catalan flags than usual and wonder if today is a holiday. The streets are crowded with people in Catalan colors, some draped in flags and my first thought is a major rugby match is about to happen, but many of the t-shirts bear the names of towns and villages not teams and, unless this is a large regional tournament, it’s not about Rugby.
When I catch sight of several film cameras, one on a Steadicam, one on a crane I decide I’ve just become an extra in a movie. This is plausible, but there’s no making sense of some of some the costumes: I mean OK a bear in downtown Perpignan, that’s fine, but what’s he doing hanging out with guys all in white, some with cleavers, others dusted in flour. The butcher, the baker and the bear: there’s a lot I don’t know about Catalan culture.
Moving with the crowd, I head for the Castillet where, there’s music, confetti, smoke and bikers. Someone stamps my hand but I can’t read it and gives me a pair of cardboard 3D glasses and a leaflet in Catalan. Now you need the glasses to view a 3D movie, but not to be in one so I’m still confused.
There are some very tall colorful figures off to one side that I first took to be religious figures but a closer look shows them to be historic and primarily secular figures appearing to represent different sectors of society from peasant to royalty.
Now the volume picks up, people are looking up at the camera and cheering, smoke is rising, flags are waving; two men are scaling the wall of the Castillet. I thought this might be the time for the bikers to rev up but they remained quiet. Then, as quickly as it began, the camera crane descended and the crowd started drifting away.
I asked a gendarme if this was a demonstration for Catalan independence and he told me no, it is in support of the Catalan language. With the French presidential elections taking place in a few weeks, this was a defense of cultural diversity and a plea for human rights not to be forgotten in the face of economic crisis.
As I walked away, I passed a street musician playing Hava Nagila on the accordion.
Great city.
