Discussing translations and meanings of the words ‘paramilitary’, ‘the troubles’ and ´black and tans’ with a non-English speaker in a faux-Irish pub in the Cours Jean Jaurés in Avignon could be fraught with risk. However I’m not certain that there was a genuine Irishman within cooee of “O’Collins” this afternoon.

We’d already dealt with ‘shandy’ (beer and lemonade) and how to spot genuine street beggars and the difficulties of identifying them in other cultures, so any topic was going to be fair game.

The paramilitary bit came about because I remarked that you never see a squad of four fully armed soldiers walking the streets of major Australian cities, whereas here that sort of thing is not only commonplace, but no attention is paid by locals. It’s quite reassuring, even though the soldiers look so young …

A few years ago I had been sitting in the same street watching a parade of vintage army vehicles and re-enactors, celebrating the anniversary of the Liberation in 1944. There was even a tank trundling along, as well as the obligatory black FFI Citroens and a few US Army jeeps with ‘GI’s slouched in them. I took a few shots of the parade back then.

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I didn’t try and take any pictures today …