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So life in the Languedoc never fails to surprise, particularly when it comes to how the French love to throw a party. Life ‘en province’ is an almost perpetual, year round celebration of something. Truffles, cherries, artichokes, apples, rice, all things pig ( praise the lard ), goat cheese, and even ‘transhumance’ – the annual migration of the sheep to new pastures. Then of course, we have the fig festival, the chestnut festival, the cepes, and multitudinous parties in aid of the grape – in varying states and it’s a wonder that we ever get any work done.

eating and drinkingWe love to eat and drink – en famille, in restaurants, picnics, at friends’ homes, we really aren’t fussy. And it’s the connection of breaking bread, and raising a glass that connects us to one another in a truly special way. One of my favourite experiences of this community style eating, happened 3 or 4 years ago. It was a fundraiser in aid of our local volunteer firemen & women. The Place de l’Europe was cleared of cars – replaced with long trestle tables and chairs. Forget your gluten free, fat free, meat free, allergic to white pepper brigade. This was rural France, and you ate what was put in front of you, or you went hungry. A rather euphemistic tomato salad landed first.  I passed – I’ve got a bit of an issue processing lycopene. Then followed pork chops, and a bag of crisps. Yep, the firemen BBQ’d, right there in the car park. Now I don’t know how many people had signed up for the event – but I felt pretty sure the firemen did. Although the volume of food could have lead you to believe otherwise… The pork chops just kept coming… Seconds, thirds if you wanted, and then came – sausage. God know how many kilos of sausage. It was a veritable oinkfest.

But as mentioned above, we celebrate plenty of other things too. Music, Patrimoine, History ( who doesn’t want to see two guys jousting from what appears to be a gondola, on a canal, with no apparent safety gear. I mean come ON ). But it’s when we gather with friends, that’s when the memories happen… Who can resist going to a truffle market with friends, purchasing, cleaning and cooking with our local black gold, and then sitting down together and eating? Who is left untempted by our wonderful oysters, our local breads, our outstanding regional wines – celebrate Grenache day ( it’s the 16th of September this year – stick it in your diary ). In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think the French are absolutely bloody right. We are here for short time, why not make it a good time!