There's something about a nine hour lunch which is very appealing. Not that I'd want to have one every day. You don't feel like doing much else afterwards. Other than - as we did yesterday - go back to somebody's house and then carry on for another couple of hours, which is why we didn't get in till one in the morning. We had a brilliant time.
Neighbours had asked us to go along for a Pentanque Club lunch in Avon les Roches. On the way we called into the house of some of their friends for an apéro. We'd met them before and they were coming as well, bringing some other friends of theirs from nearby. After a couple of glasses of fizzy we headed off to the salle de fête in the centre of the village.
Not sure how many people were there - may be three hundred - all seated at reserved tables, for a served lunch: Rillette de saumon en cassolette + Bouchée de la Mer+ Confit de cuisse de canard+ trilogie de fromages + Fondant chocolat (chaud) et crème à la menthe+ coffee+ wine. Five courses, or six if you add in the apéro and nibbles, and seven if you add in the sorbet, which wasn't on the menu, and came with alcohol or without. By that stage, without was the sensible option. The whole thing was done so well. The tables had been so prettily decorated and the lunch itself was really good, with a choice of white and red wines - all included in the €25 ticket if you bought in advance, or €30 for everyone else. The salle de fête has a large central room, with a decent sized kitchen, a stage and then various rooms off. It's a good space.
Around 6pm the band arrived at started setting up. Electric keyboard + male vocals, two females vocals, accordionist and a multi-instrumentalist, who brought along a trombone, saxophone and an electric violin. They started playing around 7.30pm and stopped around 10pm. In between the whole place had been on its feet dancing. It was great to see different generations all happy to be with each other and leaping about on the dance floor. No one was nervous about getting up and dancing on their own if they wanted to. Such a great atmosphere. Conviviality is at the heart of it all.
From there we went back to the friend's house where we'd all met up in the morning, opened some more fizzy and sat chatting away together for a couple of hours. Such a lovely way to finish. Also for us we realised how much we'd moved on with the language. It was all so easy and just flowed.
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