The mayors reception

Last night we were invited to the village hall to celebrate new year with the mayor. The invitation stated that it started at 6.30, but we are a bit wiser now and didn't get there until 7pm. I was quite surprised to see how many people were there before us but there were still plenty who arrived afterwards. A very good turnout, I would think most of the villagers were there. Sophie was there and we had a chat to her and she pointed out various people and introduced us to the mayor. had a chat with people we had met before and then it was time for the mayors speech. He welcomed us all and wished us a Happy and Healthy new Year, "Bonne annee, Bonne Sante". He said that during the year 5 new lots of people had moved into the village and proceeded to name us all, a nice touch I thought. This year it is the municipal elections so he told us who was staying on the coucil and who will be standing for election. After his speech we were all invited to partake of an aperitif. We chose the pastis but many people were drinking whiskey which seems to be a very popular pre-dinner drink in France. A late arrival was the Abbe, the parish priest, and he was introduced to us by Sophie. A very nice chap with a good sense of humour, I would think he must be about 80. One thing we have noticed on meeting local people is how many have come back to their "roots" to retire. Maybe many of them have inherited parents properties and come back for that reason; whatever the reason there is a very strong sense of communtity in the village. We then got into conversation with a retired journalist who told us that he had worked in Paris, Corsica and several other places before coming back to Castandet and working in Mont de Marsan. He turned out to be a fan of "Tauromachie", bullfighting and told us that he had travelled extensively, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, to watch the bullfights there. In the summer he says that he can watch about 5 fights a week in this part of the world. Nearly every town of any size has a series of bullfights when they have their annual fete. He was very surprised when I told him that my friends' (Nadine) niece, Patricia Pellen, is a rejoneador (fights bulls from horseback). He had seen her fight as well as her father Gerard. As well as talking about that he also recommended several good places to eat in the area, so we shall have to check them out at some point!!
After standing around for a couple of hours the time came to sit down and partake of the (free!) meal which we had been told was "grillades" grills?? We were all seated at long tables, all nicely laid out with bread, water and of course red wine. We sat with Sophie and some neighbours who we hadn't met before, Jean-Marc and his wife who have the poultry farm at the edge of the village. Opposite me was a volunteer fireman who was very chatty and had a good sense of humour. The meal was, I think, just an excuse to prolong the evening and was very basic but most welcome by the time it arrived!! Pate and vegetable mayonnaise to start with, the grillades were cooked outside on the BBQ and were sausages and bacon and to finish "creme anglaise" and pastis ( a local cake, very dry). A very pleasant evening and we now know a few more local people.