Soupe de noel...

It's still Saturday night in our recap of this weekends events (yeah sorry, I'm slow), and this brings us up to the final festivities of that night: Soupe de noel et pain perdu at the salle de fete.


Now our little village is pretty tiny, and we thought it'd be good for us to attend a function so we could meet more people, rather than staying complacent with the daily "bonjour" and "bon soir" that has become customary. We were a little intimidated as we ascended the steps to the salle de fete, especially when we saw a packed room full of people whom we didn't know (and who were all speaking french). We momentarily thought about turning around and going home, but after a little pushing on my part, we decided to take the leap and join in the dinner (which is easy for me to do as I'm not the one who'd be speaking in french to everyone!). So, we paid our 5€ each which bought us each soupe de noel, bread, cheese, an apertif, and pain perdu ("lost bread" - think of the best french toast you've ever had and then sprinkle magical and delicious fairy dust all over it) for dessert. We bought a bottle of wine to share with the table as well, thinking it couldn't hurt...


[He's got skillz.]

During dinner, we met a bunch of our fellow villagers, largely due to Dan's complete awesomeness at speaking in french and then translating to me in english. The villagers really seemed to get a kick out of him. I was impressed with his ability to go back and forth from french to english and back to french again, as we went through a long period where his attempts at translating for me ended with him not realizing that he was actually just saying things to me in french. I was impressed with myself as well, because I was getting about 50% of the conversation being spoken around me, but am nowhere near the point where my speaking ability (or lack thereof) could have resulted in me joining in the conversation besides a "ouiah" here and there.


Time flew. Conversations were energetic and bottles upon bottles of cerdon and wine were emptied. Everyone was very welcoming, and I was invited to come to coffee by one of the women there. Jean the farmer and Cecil his wife invited us to come by their home and try their cerdon at another time. Just as it seemed like the night was dying down and a few of the villagers were about to take their leave, another invitation was extended:

"But won't you come next door to play the games?"

"Huh? At the old school? At midnight? On a Saturday night?"

Sure, why not.


So to the old school we went.
With bottles of cerdon in tow.
And the villagers children along with them.






[Dan translating the rules of the games to me since I obviously have no idea what's going on...]

The games ended just shortly after 1 am.
I love this little village.

A la prochain friends...