Allo, Allo again !! Hope you feel better soon Yorkie, it seems that everyone I've spoken to in the UK in the last few days are full of cold, flu or both
I've disinfected the 'phone
Chrissie I'm sure you'll be able to get photos from your recording, I once did some of the last Concorde flight directly from the news broadcast and they worked out OK.... put on some steel capped shoes for the shopping expedition, they work even better than shopping trolleys
Christmas here is a lot less 'hyper' than in the UK, it doesn't start in August
Christmas eve is usually the time for the big family meal, before or after Church depending on the family. Gifts are exchanged at that meal, then Christmas Day is concentrated on the children, although as you can imagine there is food involved !! then that's it until New Years Eve. No boxing day ! On New Years Eve they have what is referred to as 'le reveillon " which literally means Eve but usually refers to a "do" these are held either at home, local village halls, restaurants and hotels, and it is the "grown ups" turn, although children are there as well. The event usually starts at about 9pm and the meal usually takes the form of ..... aperitif with nibbles, oysters (sometimes served with a pâté dish) then lobster/langoustines and other shellfish, a sorbet, main course - beef, venison, goose, duck or whatever (one of those !!) with vegetables, usually no potatoes, then onto the salad (green) and cheese ( cheese is always eaten before the pudding here .... salt before sugar and all that) the cheeseboard is usually a large one. I remember one restaurant reveillon where the cheeseboard had 22 cheeses to choose from ) then the dessert which is normally a gateau St.Honoré, made up of lots profiteroles - all this is accompanied by the various white and red wines, and Champagne with the dessert ....then coffee ... are you full yet
The meal takes
hours to eat, as it is interspersed with dancing, and it's not all shaking about disco .... proper close up dancing. Young and old do the quick step, foxtrot, tango etc. Once the meal is finally over, the dancing goes on into the wee small hours and then at about 6 am they serve Onion Soup !!! (just in case you're peckish
) It is absolutely exhausting and it's a couple of years since we last went to one. We've been to various family celebrations, of French friends who have 'adopted us' and whilst there's not as much dancing there's plenty of eating. At midnight there is no Auld Lang Seine just a couple of fireworks, then the Bonne Année's start ...and at a large do it can take quite a long time ! In all the time we've been going to these, and other celebratory do's I've never seen anyone drunk ..... they are just trained for it .... you certainly need a lot of stamina to live here
New Years Day is of course a holiday !!! then it's all back to normal
I hope you're not sorry you asked Yorkie
