Lunch, La Tribune And The Weather

Old Fogies' Lunch
We duly had the lunch that I had been looking forward to all week, for everyone over 65 in the village, paid for out of village funds. It didn't disappoint. The menu this year was:
Aperitifs
Salad with shrimps and crayfish tails
Fillets of perch in a butter sauce
Trou Provencal (peach sorbet bathed in marc)
Duck breast with mushrooms
Cheese
Baked Alaska flambé
Coffee
The meal was served by the Mayor and village councillors, with red and rose wine throughout and sparkling Clairette de Die with the dessert. I didn't think the cooking this year was quite up to the high standard of last year but it was again a really enjoyable occasion.

One of the gratifying (non-gastronomic) points for we old fogies was the mayor's short introductory speech. This year, as last, he said that the village was as it was was because of contributions to it that we had all made in the past and that was why the village was proud to offer us the lunch.

Two points of interest came out of conversations during the lunch. I mentioned to Daniel that, of the ~150 people there, I probably new only about half-a-dozen apart from the twenty on my table, expecting him to point out others that he knew. But he didn't know any more people than I did, which surprised me.

The other point was that I had taken my new camcorder with me to take some shots of the event and the thought came to me that it would be possible to make a short film of life in the village. Daniel already has footage of the Christmas carol singing; we could take footage of, for instance, the Feu De La St Jean, the Painters in the Streets and the Fête Votive later on, the village team at the regional boules tournament, etc and gradually piece together a snapshot of village activities over a year. I mentioned this thought to Daniel and the Mayor and both seemed supportive; so, we shall see..........The idea is actually beginning to excite me the more I consider the possibilities.

Carol Singing
Our carol singing got a write-up in the local paper, La Tribune. I'm not sure who did the write-up as Guy Tissier, the normal scribe for village events for La Tribune wasn't around at the time. I'm slihjtly puzzled by what I perceive to be a couple of grammatical errors in the text, which I've pointed out below; I'll get these checked. Since the article is short and provides a chance to get some French into my blog I include the write-up below. The article is headed “Chants de Noël en Trois Langues”.




« Sur l'initative d'une poignée de Mollanais auquel se sont greffes des amis du canton, une chorale éphémère est née puisqu'elle n'aura durée que le temps nécessaire a cette journée,

En effet, ces chanteurs ont propose 8 chants de Noël anglais, français et allemand au cours de deux représentations : la première au foyer logement St Louis et la seconde au bar du pont.

Les spectateurs n'en ont pas cru leurs oreilles telle la surprise était de taille ! En effet ce petit concert était de qualité : on était très loin de la chansonnette que l'on chante dans sa salle de bain !

Une soirée très agréable qui s'est terminée devant un buffet de friandises. « 

I think “auquel” in the first line should be “à laquelle”; I also think that “allemand” in the second paragraph should have an “s” on it. As I said, I'll check these points out.

(PS Armelle has kindly confirmed that these are indeed errors, although you could argue that since we sang only one carol in German “allemand” needn't have an “s”. The point hadn't occurred to me and could be a very subtle way of conveying that meaning but I doubt it was intended.)

From The Sublime To The Gor Blimey
Only ten days ago I was happily recording games of boules in 17 degrees of sunshine. Last Tuesday morning it started snowing and continued for most of the day. The snowing has stopped but the snow remains. It has been minus 2 degrees today and was minus 16 overnight,

In these conditions there is a sense of being trapped in the village, under siege by the weather. All the principal roads out of the village describe successions of hairpin bends as they climb, bends that can be liberally covered with black ice and which have a steep drop on one side. They are not an inviting prospect to drive on. Already one villager, Jacques Thibault, has slid off the road, although his upturned car was fortunately arrested before it could plunge into the valley below. Despite this I did drive into Vaison today as I needed a new battery for my watch. But I drove very, very slowly.