So Many Saints, so little time on the Cote d'Azur

I got caught up in a procession last July when walking to the port to look at ocean-going yachts. Barefoot sailors in white and blue shirts carried a statue of a saint and followed a group of bagpipe players.

In the festival of Saint Peter, patron saint of fishermen, a procession winds throughout the old city of Antibes and ends up near a port where a wreath is throw to sea in honor of those who have lost their lives. But I had missed a similar festival, that of Notre Dame (Our Lady) de Bon Port, in which the Virgin is taken from the Chapel of La Garoupe, known for its ex-votos and 10th-century nave, and also paraded by barefoot sailors.

The French have amped up summer festivities—patron saints, gastronomy or flowers—to appeal to tourists. I met up with my sailors later in the morning. They had deposited their saint and now were complaining about sore feet and . . . bagpipe music. I am sure we can find a patron saint to remedy these ills.