Randoautomne – le repas

We arrived at a small village and parked where we could. Heading for the village hall I spied our 80 year old member, who had not been on the walk. He seemed to be climbing up a shrub, growing on the front of a house. Unfortunately I was carrying bags of food so I missed taking that shot, but as I waited for my camera to power up, he spotted me and moved rapidly towards me. I pressed the shutter and thought “my camera won’t cope with this” Mais voila here he is clutching his grapes, or I should say, clutching someone else’s grapes.

Tables had been laid and various foodstuffs were laid out on tables at each end of the room. The sweet things were in one area, the salty things in another. Outside, under a makeshift awning, and leaving about 16 inches between the bbq and the toilet door, meat was beginning to sizzle.
Now it was time to get serious and the apero drinks and nibbles were consumed. We were supposed to all bring our couverts, no not blankets, but knife, fork, plate, glass etc.
It became obvious that many had forgotten to follow this instruction, so J who has a house in the village, set off in her car to source 15 couverts. I had my set, just in case you were wondering.

The meal passed off well, and as well as meat in various states of cookedness, I ate quiche, pizza, rice, etc as well as things that were a mystery to me. Then there were the various deserts......
During the meal there were various speeches and toasts. One of the speakers congratulated M for organising the choir’s first annual walk in the rain and snow. M became a bit defensive and miffed at this point. Here is my friend Rene, saying a few words, still going strong at 88. He later gave me details for hiring the hall. 36 euros for the whole day, including heating and everything, he said.

The meal dragged on a bit, as meals do over here, but eventually people started to pack up their stuff and drift away into the now sunny afternoon.

I remained behind because once we had put the chairs away, removed the paper table cloths, killed the bbq etc there was more entertainment to come.