Apéro nights

There is some advantage to living in a village with forty wine producers. Particularly during the summer, when the apéro party season gets into full swing.
The essential ingredients of red, rosé, white and pétillant are all close by. And we're so spoilt for choice. The wines in Cravant are just great whatever the colour and whatever the style - flat or fizzy. There is also the 'apéro's apéro'. A liquid entrée before you get on to the hard stuff, which involves mixing rosé with grapefruit syrup = 7 parts wine to 1 of syrup and then well chilled.
On a hot day it's fabulous.

Apéros are a regular feature of the social life here. And they're such fun. They start anywhere between 6pm and 8pm. But there is an 'understanding' as to how long they go on for. This depends on the generation and the degree of familiarity with those who are coming or who you're going to. When we first came here, we invited all our neighbours in (with children or babies if they had them), house by house for an apéro. It was the best way to get to know each other and for us to show that we could speak French. Then the apéro lasted for a couple of hours. Now of course it's different. They can go on for hours and we're often still outside at 11pm.

We have though been very pleasantly caught out.  The first time was last year, when some neighbours invited us round for an apéro. We were to get there about 7pm, and were sitting outside as it was a lovely evening. Then they said they had a surprise for us. Some other neighbours arrived who we hadn't met before from another part of the village. This we thought was the surprise. Masses of food came out. All delicious. We were happily chatting, drinking and nibbling till about 9pm. Then suddenly we were asked to go inside, where we discovered our neighbours had prepared a four-course dinner + different wine with each course. This was the surprise. They felt it was the best way for us to meet new people. It was a truly wonderful meal and evening, and we eventually walked home around 1am. Classic French generosity. But as our neighbours said when we thanked them for such kindness. . .
'C'est normal !'