Le Pin - The Tree

Historically the "mayade" is a custom in the area of Les Landes. It consists of decorating a branch of a pine tree which is called the "mai" in honour of the person/people to whom it is dedicated. These "mais" are, nowadays, the occasion to honour, in the villages, newly elected councillors, friends, neighbours or family members. It is the custom to erect these "mais" in certain circumstances, such as a marriage, a birthday, an arrival or a retirement. The "mais" are erected during the night of the 30th April to the 1st May, in front of the house of the recipients, in secrecy. The recipient then has to organise a meal/aperitif for those who erected the "mai"

AND THIS YEAR WE GOT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I spent a couple of days, with a friend, in Ariege and was due to come back home on the 1st of May. Before I left I had a phone call from Nigel saying that there was a major surprise for me when I got back. He would tell me no more so I spent the journey home wondering what it was! Of course I couldn't miss it as soon as I drove into the driveway there it was tied to the big oak tree on the right of the gate. It is magnificent, coverd in paper flowers with bottles of wine hanging on the branches. We had a very good idea who had done it as Bernard, who lives further down the lane, had been promising to do one for us since we first met him. I took some photos of it, straight away, we were both so chuffed to have the tree. We could see 4 bottles of wine hanging from the tree and didn't know how to get them down. Just one of them was accessible by ladder, so Nigel climbed up and got it down. The next day I was in the garden and saw Phillippe and Sophie in the lane. They shouted out to me to say what a beautiful "mai" and in the ensuing conversation I learned that it was Phillippe, Bernard, Jean-Marc and 3 others from Perron who had put up the tree. Apparently they saw Nigel sitting in the sitting room watching TV but neither he nor Rambo heard anything! I also learned that the bottles are supposed to stay on the tree until we give the party, oops!! Lucky that we could only reach one. So we shall now combine a house warming party with a thank you party for our "mai"

Music School Dinner.

On Saturday the 24th April we went to the Castandet Music School dinner. It is surprising that such a small village has such a group but I believe that it is very well supported and that many of the children in the area learn to play an instrument. We went to the event last year and several of the children showed off their talents. Sadly, this year, there was no concert. The event was advertised to start from 7pm but, having learned from past events, we went at about 7.45. On arriving at the village hall we saw that there were only a few cars there so we came back home for a while! We got there, again, about 8.45 and ordered an aperitif. Then several of our neighbours arrived and we finally got the chance to buy them an aperitif. It seems that on many occasions we have not been able to do so as they are all very generous. We sat down to eat, at beautifully decorated tables, at about 9.30. We were sitting on a table with our immediate neighbours and several other people from our part of the village. As usual we had a very copious meal, Tourrrin, which is a popular tomato type soup, daube de taurau (bull stew) cheese and green salad and creme caramel. Another pleasant village evening.