Another Saturday, another party....

This is a nice time of year in South West France with everyone organising a variety of social events.  There is always something happening every weekend and often the odd evening during the week gets taken up, as well, in a whirlwind of social activity...

Last week I wrote a piece about a nice party we went to on Saturday night... This weekend it was another Saturday and another Party.

This particular party was a celebration for the residents of the tiny community amongst which I live... Everyone was invited and everyone turned up so there were just 20 of us there.

The evening started with a cocktail being served....  It was delicious, but was a secret recipe of the host... he did list all the ingredients for me but I lost track after Gin, White Rum, Grenadine and lots of tonic water.... To soak up the alcohol, there were little pieces of a fruit bread... I had the Fig one and it was fabulous.....but there was also an olive version.

For the main meal a cous-cous had been prepared.... everything was served in separate dishes so you just helped yourself to copious quantities of lamb, sausages, meat balls, a super vegetable dish of mixed homegrown vegetables in a light jus...the jus was delicious poured over the cous cous along with a vast array of accompaniments....It was great as it catered for both the omnivores and vegetarians amongst us with everyone just choosing whatever they could eat.

There was a cheese board with a selection of locally produced cheeses and then for dessert...

Well, to start with I should probably say "desserts" as there were a choice of 7 or 8.  A fabulous mixed fruit tart, a lovely cherry cake,which was my favourite, aniseed biscuits, a Perigordian gateau amongst a few others.

One of the residents used to play in a rock band and happened to have another member of the band staying with him for the weekend, so they turned up with guitars and provided some great 1970's music.  The girls provided the backing vocals but everyone joined in and drowned them out....

Another neighbour plays the saxophone and he was subsequently persuaded to play a couple of very nice pieces as well....

 

The host for the evening had one last piece of entertainment lined up for us and at about 11.00 pm he invited us all out into the garden to see the lunar eclipse.  the eclipse was spectacular and a clear sky ensured a great view. It wasn't a total eclipse but was very substantial.  Our host apologise for this, but explained that nowadays, a total eclipse was just too expensive to afford....

 

Michael was there and of course, provided all these photos for me....The party went on well into the night and some of the younger guests just curled up and went to sleep.

It was another wonderful moment in my life in France