Yesterday, we went to the “verre de l’amitié” meeting at our local salle des fêtes. Each person arriving greeted each of the assembled group with the incantation “bonne année et meilleurs vœux”, receiving an identical incantation in reply. As the assembly grew larger, the greetings took longer which meant that Madame le Maire started her speech 45 minutes late which by normal French standards is considered à l’heure.
It was interesting to see that the le bisou is making a strong return following the Covid scare. I do wish however, the men would shave more often.
The Maire’s speech started with a brief description of the parlous state of French finances, the chaos in the French political system, and the dangers facing the world in 2025 before moving on to the far more important subjects of lack of funds for the church repairs, the cost of lighting for the petanque court and the problems of dogs fouling the pavements in the village (which is a bit rich because our chemin has grass verges and everyone comes there to “walk” their dogs).
I think our bewildered looks made us stand out as foreigners because some new faces came across to introduce themselves to us. One very talkative woman even said she loved my sense of humour which was a bit embarrassing because, as far as I knew, I had not cracked any jokes.
We left less than replete have tested the cold pizza and less than exciting wine. As we were leaving, we noticed that the main party was in the kitchen at the back of the hall. It was loud men only sustained by bottles of eau de vie.
