Michel and Lucas 'party.

So, Saturday the 22nd of August is the big day for Michel and Lucas. Earlier in the year Michel was 50 and Lucas was 18. Michel is divorced, lives in Perron and has two sons, Lucas and Rafael. We don't know them that well but they were all invited to our aperitif evening so we are invited to their celebrations in the village hall. We had been told that 107 people were expected for the day. It is the custom to take a present but we had been asked to make a financial contribution instead as they are hoping to take a trip to Spain. Something we were only too happy to do, much easier than buying a present!
The invitation stated that aperitifs started at 12pm but after conferring with Sophie we went down there at about 1pm as the aperitifs usually go on for quite some time. It was another hot day, the village hall doesn't have air conditioning but all the doors and windows were open. There were 3 long tables running down the hall with the top table joining them at the top end of the hall. The decorations were red and yellow, the colours of Spain in deference to Michel's ancestry.
There were already a lot of people there, most of them clustered around the bar, and we first went round everyone that we knew, shaking hands or kissing them. Drinks were free, I asked for a sangria, and people were circulating with beautifully presented "nibbles". Not long after we arrived Michel,Lucas and Rafael arrived all three of them on mopeds with their names as their number plates. We had another glass of sangria and carried on chatting. By 2 pm there was still no sign of people making their way to the tables so we had another drink, tonic water this time due to the fact that there will be wine served with the meal.
Finally, at about 2.30 people started making their way to the tables. Sophie had sorted out which table we from Perron were going to sit at so Nigel and I stood guard, repelling invaders, until the rest of our party was seated. Many at our table were helping with the service, the meal was catered but the service and clearing was undertaken by friends.
We started with melon, dried ham, pate, tomato and lettuce with a very nice dressing accompanied by rose wine. Next came the fish course, an unnamed fish with an extremely tasty sauce. The main course was a thick slice of rare roast beef accompanied by the eternal haricots (tinned of course!) and bottles of red Bordeaux. This was followed by a slice of sheep's cheese with black cherry jam and a green salad. Finally the dessert was birthday cake. It seems to be the custom that the cake has to be shown to everyone before it is sliced up and apportioned out. Lucas brought his cake round and Alain "paraded" Michel's cake. Then of course coffee and Armagnac was served. By the time we stood up from the table it was 6.30pm and we were all replete!
Many people then left to take a breather before the next round of festivies and we were only too happy to do the same. We went back again about 9pm and it seemed that most of the guests had been back home for a breather as well. The bar was, by this time, sadly lacking in soft drinks although there still seemed to be whiskey and pastis available. Opting for safety we shared a beer and a lemonade which combined to make a lukewarm, flat shandy!! Standing outside in the cool of the evening we could see the two huge pans of paella being prepared for the next round of eating. We chatted for an hour or so and then the karaoke started!!!!!!!! Oh dear!! We both decided that it would be good to make a quiet exit, too much noise and it looked as if it would be quite some time before the paella appeared, not that we were hungry anyway.
It was certainly a good time and another insight into life in Castandet (quartier Perron.)

Burning the pine.

Our neighbour Michel was 50 earlier in the year and his son, Lucas, celebrated his 18th birthday earlier in the year. As is local custom two "mais" or "pins" were erected in honour of these occasions and on Friday the 21st of August we were invited for aperitifs in order to "water" the pine trees and then watch them taken down and burnt. This evening was only a prelude to the next day when many more people had been invited to celebrate these events in the village hall - more of that later.
We walked down to Michel's at about 8pm and there were quite a few people already there, about 20 or so I should think. This time we managed to do the polite thing and saluted everyone with kisses or handshakes.! There were quite a few people there that we hadn't met before including some Spanish cousins as, apparently, Michel is of Spanish origin. Otherwise it was the usual culprits! Bernard and Chantal, Pascal, Sophie and Phillippe, Dominique and Christine, Michel's other son Rafael and his girlfriend, Olivier and various children. We accepted a drink and sat around and chatted for a while before we got to the business of the evening. Dominique wielded the chain-saw and cut down the pine and then cut it into smaller pieces for burning. It was just falling dusk when they set fire to it and it burned very well, thankfully no sparks setting light to anything else - at least we had two firemen in attendance, Phillippe and Pascal. Mme Gourdon(Monique) came over to watch the fire and I walked over to have a chat with her. As always the chat turned into quite a long monologue from her but I was only too happy to listen to her. Then back to the table and more drinks and nibbles were served. Aftera couple of Martinis I thought I should go onto something a little weaker so I changed over to Tonic water whereas Nigel was given another, and maybe another as well, pastis with no option of refusing it! I had a chat with the son of Dominique and Christine, a charming young man who is at university and speaks good English, he is very keen to visit London. Nigel and Olivier were chatting away in a mixture of French and English, both of them finding this much easier after a couple or three pastis! We made our way home at about 11pm as we know that it will be a long day tomorrow!!

Surprise Party.

One of the reasons for Janneke and Barclay's visit to Ariege was to organise a surprise party to celebrate Martins' 60th birthday which was in June. Janneke had e mailed me a few months ago to tell me all about it. The plan was that they would be at Landry for 10 days and that many friends and relatives from Holland would arrive for the weekend of the 8th August, the date the party was to be held. When we saw Martin and Mieke, at Corry's party, we said that we would be back on the 8th to see Janneke and Barclay making, of course, no mention of the party. When Janneke and Barclay visited us,during the precious week, they said that there were between 40 and 50 guests arriving from Holland on the 7th, many would be in caravans or bringing tents and some would be in B and B accomodation.
We went over to Ariege on the Thursday and once again we were able to base ourselves at Caoutelle. Jez and family were there along with a friend of Cissies and we had a pleasant evening with them, dinner on the patio which terminated with an amazing display of thunder and lightening. Jez and the children left next morning, Caroline wasn't leaving until the next day.
We went over to Landry in the afternoon and met, on the road to there, Martin and some of the guests who werre going into Pamiers. When we got to Landry Mieke still hadn't realised what was happening. Janneke had gone shopping and there were a couple of caravans there and about 10 people including one of Miekes sisters. At this point all Mieke knew was that they had all decided to call in after a holiday in Spain. I asked if she was expecting anyone else and she said "no thirteen is enough, already". Little did she know. After sitting and chatting for a while Janneke returned and we had a brief chat with her before saying our farewells.
The plan was to have the party at Landry and they had made arrangements, with the mayor of St Michel, to borrow the chairs and tables from the village hall. The mayor said that if the weather was wet they could use the village hall. The weather looked unsettled but when we arrived, at about 4pm on Saturday, they had taken the bull my the horns and decided to have it at Landry. There were a lot of people there!!! Apparently, when Martin got back from Pamiers on Friday afternoon, after we had left, Anna their other daughter was there. He immediatly thought that there had been a disaster as she wasn't supposed to be there! Janneke said that it was soon after we had left and other people started to arrive that they had told her parents what was afoot!
It seemed that they had all celebrated well into the early hours of Saturday morning before starting again after lunch. The beer and wine were flowing and Janneke and Anna, along with quite a few of the ladies, were busy in the kitchen. The Dutch are like the French with everyone shaking hands and introducing themselves to us. A pleasant custom but no way were we going to remember all those strange sounding Dutch names. The only one whose name I remembered was the husband of one of the Dutch ladies introduced himself to me as Rafael from Barcelona! So the afternoon slipped pleasantly away and soon the barbecue was alight and Barclay and some helpers were cooking the meat. The ladies emerged from the house with dishes of salad, couscous, pasta, tomatoes, rice and tortillas. A few local people arrived to swell the numbers and the evening drifted on. We finally said our goodbyes. Martin was very emotional, so overcome by the fact that so many people had made such a trip to come to his party.

A surprise visit.

Several years ago Janneke, the daughter of Martin and Mieke, visited her parents and met Barclay, a young man from Nicaragua, who was staying with them and helping Martin to build his barn.It may not have been love at first sight but it was obvious, over the coming weeks, that they were becoming very close. Janneke went back to Holland and Barclay back to Switzerland, where he was staying and working with friends, but they carried on meeting when they were able. They eventually became enaged and married in Nicaragua in 2005. We were invited to the wedding but only Nigel was able to go as I stayed at Carol to look after all the animals.
Since then they have settled in Holland, Barclay has learned to speak Dutch and has done his apprenticeship as a plumber. In February this year they had a baby, Kenai. They came down to Landry on the 30th July to visit Martin and Mieke. Janneke rang me the following Monday to ask if they could come over the next day and stay overnight and of course we were delighted to say yes. We had met up with them when they were down last year, for lunch, a meeting which was all too brief.
We spent a wonderful 24 hours with them this time and were able to make the acquaintence of Kenai. He is a very good humoured little chap and much adored by his parents. Barclay is more than happy to spend time with him and when we got up the next morning Barclay was wandering round the garden with Kenai talking and laughing with him.