The 'Orses Do-Over *

We had a very interesting afternoon yesterday at a celebratory lunch.  One of the ladies at the Bridge Club, Aline, invited lots of people for lunch, either the 16th (which we couldn't do as it was the last Sunday of the 'Open Garden') or yesterday 23rd.  The rumour going around the club was that it was a birthday party for her horse !

We arrived at the party for 12.30 to be greeted by quite a few invitees in a large open-sided barn where tables were laid up and the drinks table was invitingly waiting.  But no sign of Aline or the horse.  Everybody stood around, introducing themselves … and waited.  After about a half an hour, the message came out from the kitchen that some 30 hard-boiled eggs had been lost, but at this point we were encouraged to help ourselves to an apéro.  Amongst the drinks on offer (all sweet, as is the French taste) was a demi-john of home-made Ratafia, a distilled grape juice, which we felt obliged to taste … very warming on the way down.

Eventually everyone was invited to sit and we were served a salad starter.  We were seated at a table with 6 French people of our sort of age and so we had an ideal opportunity to observe the difference in French food culture compared to what we treat as normal in England.  The salad starter (with bread) was followed by a slice or two of cold roast beef (and bread).  A huge selection of cheeses was next (and bread), to be finished with Strawberry or/and Plum tart, although once the tarts were all gone, a big bowl of Crème Anglais (custard to you and me) was placed on the table to accompany choux buns.

Needless to say all of the meal was just an excuse to drink wine, white or red, whilst setting the world to rights.  We were included in the conversations which ranged from rural history, people's neighbours, Rugby, football, French politics, Brexit, and Rugby (in case you missed it the first time round).  We were unable to keep a track of how many bottle of wine the 3 gentlemen drank … certainly a tad more than the recommended limit for both health and the Law.

At this point, no sign of Aline or the horse, but bottles of Champagne were put on each table which everyone felt duty bound to drink to toast the horse's birthday.

By now some 5 hours had passed and so we thought we would say goodbye to Aline or the horse.  We went into the kitchen … empty, so we made noises and went into another room to see a lady and a gentleman who had helped with the serving, both flat out, one on the settee and the other in an armchair.  We enquired about Aline but were told she was 'having a rest'!

Sue drove us home very carefully via all of the back-roads.

* the Waller family name for an hors d'oeuvre