1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 568: We don't have much time left!

Notice boards near major landmarks throughout Lourmaran are displaying information about two major events scheduled for August.

The marathon poster is red, immediately evoking the word "passion".

The poster for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary is a warm off-white color, as if the 'Mother Mary' is embracing her child.

But overnight, the beige poster disappeared into thin air, replaced by an apricot-colored poster, which immediately attracted the attention of the local villagers who were curious about such things.

In the past, the village notice boards were either posted about someone losing something, or they were filled with science education about fire prevention, theft prevention, and prevention of autumn mushroom poisoning. People would just glance at them and walk away, so they didn't serve any real purpose as "notices".

Later, when Lourmaran was able to organize its own events, the government required that notice boards only announce major events to be held in the village in the next one to two months, or any happy events that would benefit the villagers in the near future.

After that, villagers would always pay attention to the notice board when they went out, since it was closely related to everyone's lives.

Seeing the new poster, the villagers thought there would be new excitement to see. However, the apricot-colored poster was still promoting the 'Feast of the Assumption of Mary' event, but it contained some new information compared to the previous version.

The first piece of new information is that on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, organ masters and choirs will visit Lourmaran to sing for the Virgin Mary, and the public can join in to witness the first time that the 'Voice of God' resounds over Luberon, a truly memorable day.

The second update is as follows: In order to coincide with the arrival of 'Voice of God' in Luberon and Lourmaran, the government has decided to renovate the Lourmaran Church, and the church will be closed from today.

The third piece of new information is that the organ and Lourmaran Church have been renovated, initiated and donated by Mr. Ronan, a villager. Let us thank the Lord’s most devout child.

The number of devout Catholics in Lourmaran is small.

Compared to the most devout children who thank God, the villagers tend to envy the young people in the village who are the best at making money.

During those two days, wherever Ronan appeared, he would be met with a lot of envious glances.

Everyone who saw Ronan seemed to be wondering – how is this guy so rich? So rich that he's even donating money?
According to information gathered during the marathon, Ronanchai believes the government put him on such a high pedestal in order to attract more villagers from other villages to sign up for the event.

As Zoe said, Ronan is indeed a celebrity to some extent, like Luberon Jr.

Just as Vieri's classmates thought, Ronan was an idol for many young people.

Ronan admitted to both of these points!
As for other aspects, that's just wishful thinking.

I didn't see any of the things Zoe mentioned about gaining local support, Louis's talk about expanding the village's reputation, Barty's idea of ​​supporting the Chinese restaurant, the knitting business, or the Stella Winery, etc.

After the posters were put up, Ronan paid close attention to the situation at several businesses, but several days passed without any fluctuation in foot traffic; everything remained the same as before.

On this day, Ronan finished his 8-kilometer morning run, took a shower, and as usual, went for a stroll around the Lourmarin Visitor Center to see if the vineyard picnic program had become particularly popular.

What if those people's words are blessed and actually affect his business?
But when Ronan saw that Duma and the others were still waiting for work at the visitor center, he knew that his hopes had been dashed again.

Since he was already there, and the registration address for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary was also at the visitor center, Ronan took the opportunity to inquire about the registration situation for the upgraded event.

"Has the number of people signing up for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary increased these past two days?" Ronan led Duma to a corner, away from the bustling crowd.

“Yes, yes, yes, almost every day around 100 people sign up, and I heard the total number of registrants has exceeded 600,” Duma said.

The Lourmaran Church has limited capacity and cannot accommodate more than 600 people singing hymns together.

Ronan didn't know what Blanco was thinking, but he felt that the Assumption of Mary event could be described as 'incredibly successful', since it wasn't free for those who came to participate, as they had to pay 70 francs.

When Ronan thought about the church's capacity, he thought of his pipe organ.

That day, Condina went to Ronan's house and told Zoe that they had contacted an organ repairman to assess the instrument in Aix, but she didn't know what the progress was.

"Alright, you go ahead with your work, I'll go check on the restaurant." Ronan nodded to Duma and turned to leave.

On the way back to the restaurant from the visitor center, you'll pass the Old Church of Lourmaran, which Ronan plans to visit.

Duma suddenly stopped Ronan and asked:
Why don't you ask how many people have signed up for the marathon?

"Marathon registration is also at the event center?" Ronan looked around but didn't see any government staff. "That can't be right. I remember the registration for this event is elsewhere."

The Lourmaran government is very confident about the marathon.

They believed that many people would sign up, so instead of setting up the registration location at the visitor center, they found a separate address.

“It was somewhere else, but I ran into Claude this morning and we talked about the marathon,” Duma said with a mysterious smile.

Ronan turned to look at him with a smile:

"There must be a lot of people, right? I can tell from your expression. But the marathon registration fee is 100 francs. Although its content is more in line with the tastes of Provençal people and its participation is more widespread, judging from the data of the events here during the Feast of the Assumption of Mary—"

Ronan thought about it seriously:
"2000 people?"

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary is a religious holiday, which filters out many people.

A marathon is a fun-filled journey of 42.195 kilometers, which is clearly more to the liking of Provençal people.

However, the registration fee is also more expensive.

Frankly speaking, Ronan not only doesn't understand music, but he also doesn't know much about sports.

He thought marathons were free.
To that end, Sylvie gave him a simple explanation.

It turns out that in France in the 80s, all sporting events were not free; even the Mena village football team had to pay a fee to play 'street football'.

If Ronan hadn't paid the 100 francs, he might have given a much higher estimate of the number of participants, but he didn't think that many people would pay money to 'suffer'.

No matter how enjoyable the journey was, it was a solid 42.195 kilometers!

Duma suddenly stuck out a finger and almost poked Ronan in the eye:
"Ten thousand people signed up! Can you believe it? Ten thousand people! Because there are so many people, the tourism center has to screen them, and ultimately 5000 people will get the chance to participate. Good heavens, these contestants plus their families number at least tens of thousands. It's hard to imagine that Lourmaran could one day squeeze in so many people."

Provençal people love excitement, and participants would never go to such a joyful event alone; their wives, husbands, children, parents, friends, neighbors, and others would all accompany them.

Lourmaran, which usually only sees a few thousand to ten or twenty thousand tourists, was already this crowded. The sheer scale of the event that day, with the athletes and their families and friends, was simply unimaginable.

Is this still the Lourmaran we know?
Immediately afterwards, Duma spoke in an even louder voice:

"With a registration fee of 100 francs per person, 5000 participants would bring in a total of 50 francs. Add to that the revenue from the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, not counting taxes, and the government earns hundreds of thousands of francs a month. That's quite impressive!"

Ronan didn't have time to join Duma in marveling at the Lourmaran government's money-making prowess; he muttered a curse under his breath:
"Damn it, there are so many competitors?"

The Lourmaran government is not as efficient as the Aix-en-Provence Antiquities Bureau. When Ronan passed by the old church, the 13th-century monument had already closed for business and the exterior had been protected.

Ronan was lucky today; he ran into Contina at the church entrance. She had been assigned the task of overseeing the church renovations.

"It's already started?" Ronan said, pointing to the workers. "They're all old friends."

He recognized several acquaintances among them, some of whom had participated in the construction of the Stersga cellar and others in the renovation of the Lourmarin Castle. It can only be said that Lourmarin's pace of "renovation, renovation, renovation" has not stopped for a moment this year.

I thought the old church would be spared, but now it's been affected too.

The construction site was a bit noisy, so Contina walked closer before answering:
"It's been several days since it started, and this time we're under a lot of time."

It's already August, and there are only two weeks left until the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. It's another difficult task to get things moving.

Ronan asked with concern:

"How is the organ? Is it time-consuming to repair?"

The fact that the government dared to include the pipe organ in its Assumption of Mary promotional materials proves that experts, after examining it, determined that it could be repaired; it was just a matter of time.

Condina made a praying gesture:

"Thank goodness, the experts we found said that this organ hadn't been used much before, and it wouldn't be difficult or strenuous to repair, except that we would have been too busy to handle it."

“That’s great, that’s great.” Ronan also made a praying gesture.

If all goes well, after the Assumption of Mary celebrations, Mother Feng Zhen can begin her 'musical enlightenment'.

With that in mind, Ronan decided to go home and ask his parents and Zoe if they were interested in the 'Assumption of Mary' celebrations.

If you're not opposed to it, you can bring Feng Zhen to experience the charm of the 'Sound of God' up close, after all, this time they've invited an organ master.

Hmm, I wonder if this master is interested in taking on apprentices?
Ronan wanted to chat with Contina a little longer, but the noise from the construction gradually drowned out their conversation.

After quickly wrapping things up, Ronan said goodbye to Contina and continued towards the Chinese restaurant on the shopping street.

I have no idea what's going on inside the church. The huge noise just now made Ronan's head buzz. He's been outside for a long time, but the tinnitus hasn't gone away. Opening and closing his mouth doesn't help.

And perhaps it was just psychological, but as Ronan walked, he suddenly heard the clanging sounds of construction again.

He rubbed his ears and looked around:

"Am I hallucinating? I hope this doesn't cause me a workplace injury?"

After walking a little further, Ronan became certain that there was indeed construction going on in front of them, not at the location of the old church behind them.

Following the sound, they found themselves near an unfamiliar street.

“A new commercial street.” Ronan immediately realized.

Previously, the shopping street was blocked off by barriers, and Ronan had never been able to enter.

With August approaching, the government has approved renovations and construction for some shops, removing fences and barriers.

"Hey, you're here too?"

Ronan turned around and saw Batty and Sandrine.

Behind them was Cafu, who had taken off his suit and put on work clothes, and several other fit young men who had also taken off their suits.

“I was passing by and heard construction noise, so I came to check it out.” Ronan asked疑惑地, “Weren’t they saying they’d start construction after the marathon?”

Before and after the marathon, many tourists from other places will come to Lourmaran. In order to have enough manpower to receive customers, Cafu gave a few days ago the start time for renovations to be after the marathon.

The renovation of the new restaurant and dessert bakery also started at that time for the same reason.

Cafu said with a serious expression:
"But look how anxious these guys are, it's been clanging and banging here since the first day of August."

Sandrine's expression was also very serious:

“Our renovations have been taking too long; it’s a race against time. You mentioned that Lourmaran is hosting a big food event in October, and we hope to open before then. Missing an event means missing an opportunity to ‘introduce’ ourselves. I heard the feedback from the Marathon and Feast of the Assumption was good? We have to speed things up.”

Batistuta quickened his pace, stirring up a gust of heat as he passed Ronan:
"We're given too little time!"

Ronan followed a few people to the shop of the Lourmaran Handicraft Cooperative and listened to Cafu explain to his employees how to proceed with the work.

Bati took the renovation very seriously, and their approach was to focus on decoration rather than renovation. Overall, there weren't many difficult or complex aspects to consider; the main challenge was finding the right furniture to match and combine after the basic renovation.

Without wasting any more time, Ronan left alone and headed towards the Chinese restaurant.

But on the way, he ran into an 'acquaintance' again.

No, not acquaintances, but relatives.

Ronan was surprised to see Luo Tianhai, Feng Zhen, and Liya at the entrance of the new commercial street.

"The renovation of the restaurant and dessert bakery isn't supposed to start today, is it?" Ronan asked in surprise.

What's going on with you one or two people?

Leah smiled and said:
"No, but we've arranged for Solena to come to the site today to take a look and discuss the renovation."

Ronan didn't have to worry about decorating any of the three shops this time. However, the bakery and the new restaurant had many ingenious design ideas and were quite challenging. To this day, they are still frequently communicating with the designer about the details.

"You spent two hours on that phone call yesterday, and you still haven't resolved the issue?" Ronan asked Luo Tianhai.

Luo Tianhai shook his head with his hands behind his back:
"We've had a good discussion, but Leah and I have come up with an even better solution and want to quickly discuss its feasibility with the designer."

Feng Zhen saw the notice in the village and learned that her son had not only donated the pipe organ but also supported the renovation of the church.

She didn't understand anything about spiritual leaders or charisma; all she knew was that Ronan did all of this for his mother!

At this moment, Feng Zhen's maternal love surged like a mighty river, crashing against her heart.

"Many restaurants will be opening in the new commercial street, which will be a challenge for us. The sooner we finish the renovations, the sooner we can seize the opportunity. We have to race against time; the schedule is too tight this time!"

Ronan looked at the elders with a complicated expression.

Time is tight, time is tight. You're all in such a hurry, I need to hurry too!
(End of this chapter)