Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

2-10-2010
Originally uploaded by cspatrick

Saturday, October 02, 2010 Day 94
We returned to the Comedie this morning to see if more of the booths were occupied, as not all of them had been when we passed yesterday. We happened upon a gentleman roasting chestnuts on an open fire. It may not be Christmas, but that had me singing! We bought a paper coronet full of them and ate them. They were pretty tasty. Regarding the fire, I tried to determine whether it gave off the same scent we caught yesterday in the area, but I was not able to definitively say whether it was the same smell or a different one.
While on the Comedie, we saw about a dozen people, all in black bathing suits, smearing their bodies with what appeared to be honey, then chocolate. Someone else blew up two beach ball globes. Then the group began to toss the balls among themselves and to pose with them, Atlas-style. A woman circulated among the spectators handing out leaflets with the heading “Stop au Petrole À Tout Prix” – Stop Oil at Any Price. It turns out this was a Greenpeace demonstration, an “oil mob” planned for 15 French cities today. We moved on and did not stay for the demonstration.