A night on the town...

Last night along with our friends Mike and Liz we went to our local Salle de Fetes for a dinner/dance. We had decided to go to continue our 'get involved with the local community' approach to living here. The last such event in Barrou was way back in February, though we did have the 'Barroudeurs' in July.  (Must let you know about this outside event), The February Saint Blaise day event is so popular that they have to erect a marquee in the village square to accommodate everyone. Pauline and I were the only non - French there but we found ourselves sitting in good company, among whom were the parents of the couple we bought our house from,who were very tolerant of my total lack of French and allowed Pauline to practice her's in a sympathetic manner. Anyway when Mike and Liz, who are over to 'winterize' (is this a word?) their house, were asked if they wanted to go - they said yes. This meant it would be a bit more relaxed as we would not be spending the night trying to concentrate on what was said - of course we can only speak for ourselves!

The night was a family affair which for the first couple of hours felt like a wedding, with what seemed like every child from the village sliding,running and dancing across the floor. The music was provided by a D.I.S.C.O.(yes he actually played this,French version, plus YMCA) which surprised us as there would be /were a lot of the older members of the village attending. Our tickets said 8.30 so we knew we would not be starting to eat until after 10.00 (we are in France) and actually had our desert around midnight! The main event of the meal, which we did not discover until we were given the tickets on Thursday, was 'choucroute' which I'm not a lover of and Pauline really struggles with, but it turned out to be ok for us.  We found ourselves sitting beside the new proprietors of the restaurant which, straight from the horses mouth, is reopening in December - great news. The organisers of these events really work hard before, during and after the festivities. The music never wavered from the French disco beat as the DJ seemed oblivious to half his audience, my lasting memory will be of Pauline and Liz's swan song trying to pick up the moves for the French version of the hokey cokey, yes this was the level of sophistication he thought his audience had arrived at. We left a small crowd of children and a couple of tireless adults (it was 1.30 am) dancing into the wee small hours. A good night was had by all!


Footnote: Ken Broadhurst has good blog on  'choucroute' here.