Bonne annee!

I haven't installed accents on my laptop yet, need to do that. So! What might New Year's in France include?

Champagne.
Smoked salmon.
Fois gras.
Cheese platter.
Tasty desserts.
Dancing.
Coffee.

That makes: check, check, check, check, check, check and check. I sort of new that it was mostly going to people a bit older than me and their kids. When I arrived, everyone said hi and was very friendly. I even got some wine splashed on the bottom edge of my pants (khaki cords!) to start the night. The dancing started pretty much right off. And I realized rather quickly that I had three options. Hang out with kids (oldest ~12.) Watch people dance. Join in the dancing.

Join in it was. Here, meals are often (compared to home) very structured. An aperitif (we'd consider it a snack with a drink, or an appetizer, depending.) Then a main dish. Then cheese. Then dessert. And so it was at the party. At first, actually, they fed the kids chicken nuggets and fries. There were also a few little things on the table, like endive leaves with tuna salad on them. Once the kids were full, out came the foie gras. The tapenade. The smoked salmon. The other kind of salmon, in a sort of tuna salad. One that was gone, one savory tart was brought out, but everyone was pretty much full by then (it got saved for lunch today, don't worry.) Then a bit later, a platter with 10 kinds of cheese (I kid you not!) Then around 1, out came the dessert - la buche. It's a Christmas (and apparently New Year's) sort of cake. That is very rich. Very good. There were three, chocolate, raspberry, and orange. I had two slices of a raspberry one at the Christmas part I went to, so I went for chocolate and orange here. They were both quite good.

That's the food, then what about the music? It was a bit of everything. American. French. English. Abba. Other. Some sort-of-recent stuff at first, with current stuff. A 2008 or 9 'hits' was brought out for the 12 yr old girls. And then once the kids went to bed (when the parents pulled out the whiskey and gin) it was mostly 80s stuff. 80s French music? It's mostly like American 80s music. As far as I could tell, anyway. A lot of the stuff was American for sure. It was fun listening to some of them sing along. There was a good bit of 'yaourt' - yogurt. Means indistinct singing along when the person has no idea of the real words. One of the songs they played for the younger girls was Katy Perry's "I kissed a girl." Everybody seemed to know the one main line. And sort of went mushy after that. A pretty dumb song anyway.

We were out at a house not far from the Channel, so everyone slept there. And got up in the morning, the adults cleaned up while the kids played in gorgeous sunshine, even though it was cold out it was a beautiful day. Had lunch. And went up to see the channel. Or started to. Right before we left, it started doing a weird hail/snow thing. Looked like little styrofoam balls all over the windshield. The other cars turned around, but we continued on, to at least *see* the water. Then - miracle! - the snow let up! It was still FREEZING and the wind was blowing really hard, so just 3 of us got out and walked down to the water. And Valinda now has wet Cap Gris Nez sand waiting for her.

I had fun. As I got more tired, it was sort of frustrating because I kept having to ask people to repeat themselves. Especially with the music and everyone talking in the background, it was really tough for me to understand sometimes. And then a few people were joking around, and I understood, but didn't think I understood because I wasn't expecting sarcasm.

This morning I also read a bit of a graphic novel (i.e. long comic-style book for adults) made from Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States.' I knew that the book was interesting, but it was extra interesting to see it in that format. It's bits of history, but told from the point of view of people involved. Not of the main actors that we normally think of, but people who made a big difference and are often left out. It starts out with Wounded Knee, but from a Native American who arrived on the scene after the massacre. I am sure the full book has a lot more.

Well, I'm super tired, so I believe that's it for me today. I am headed somewhere new tomorrow and you should know by now to have patience :)