Notes from the apocalypse — Part 5

Bastille Day Sri Lankan style

July 14 has a special place on France’s annual calendar. Usually a balmy summer’s day (the torrid heat comes in August; or at least it did, pre-climate change) Bastille Day is celebrated with a grand military parade in Paris. But in the country it is a day for music, dancing, wine and wonderful food, typically in town squares with tables laid out in the open. Terror of the guillotine and the starvation that led to the people’s uprising are long forgotten, only recalled briefly as La Marseillaise is belted out.