International randomness

Sundays never fail to amaze me here in Yssingeaux. I'm not sure if it's because the town does very little to advertise its events or if I just miss them because they're all in French. But today, for at least the second time in a month, I walked into downtown Yssingeaux thinking I'd find the streets nearly empty only to come upon a massive festival taking place that I had no idea would be there. Clovis, Josh, puppies and I headed downtown this morning for our new weekly ritual: cappuccinos at the corner bar. Almost immediately after passing the annoyance of street construction outside the church near our apartment, we knew something was different about today. Stall after stall of old keepsakes reminded us that someone had told us there would be a flea market in July. This must be it! We browsed a bit and bought a few small things (I found some cool coins from the 17- and 1800s!). They were literally selling everything, including the kitchen sink:

On the way to the cafe for cappuccinos we saw a sign advertising a jazz show at our favorite bar, Cine Lux, starting at 11am. We started calling people to meet us there. The jazz show was outside--it was electric and a lot of fun, especially for a pretty Sunday in July. We only stayed about 45 minutes before heading back. Then we saw the very end of what looked like a really fun steel-drum band's set. They were leaving for lunch but would be back in an hour. So, we would do the same. The Our Boys Steel Orchestra came all the way from Trinidad & Tobago (in the Caribbean) to play for us the country's national instrument, the steel-pan drum. The group was simply amazing, a lot of fun.

And apparently they weren't the only ones in Yssingeaux today representing other countries. There is a folk festival going on in nearby Le Puy en Velay and some of the folk groups came to our town today. There were groups from the Canary Islands:

And from Slovakia:

And from Kazakhstan:

All in all, super random fun on a Sunday. What did you do today?