BELATED BONNE ANNEE

Comme d'habitude, I resolve to be a regular blogger and it doesn't happen.

Christmas is well over and it was our first and probably last spent in St.Pons, it just wasn't very Christmassy, but then having spent 15 plus years in the Alps for the holiday it did have a very hard act to follow.
Noel is evolving in France, what was a low key family celebration; a big meal on Christmas eve, midnight mass, the exchanging of boxes of chocolates and wine for adults and a gift for the children, is becoming more commercial. Every town feels obliged to put on a Christmas market and most of these are a bit grim, (ours in St.Pons was poor in comparison to last year), gift buying is on the increase, and the French are embracing decorations American style, as in what's on the outside of your house should be pretty naff - they do like lights, and they certainly cost in comparison to those for sale in the U.K.

 

If it's going to be fake - make it really FAKE - I loved it.

Tree ride in Toulouse.

 

We did the Christmas market in Toulouse this year, and it was very smartly put together and the stalls on the whole sold quality goods and food - this is France, A LOT OF FOOD. We don't go in much for gift giving, I need nothing in the way of jewellery, and oysters and foie gras aren't for us, so we can whizz 'round a market in lightening time. The one thing we always buy is special Christmas tree decorations, something hand crafted, or unusual, something natural, or really kitsch - there was nothing to be found, rien. 

One day the week before Christmas day we'd been out for a walk and thought on the way back it would be lovely to stop off in the wine bar in Assignan for a drink on our way home. Maybe there'll be a cosy fire, maybe it'll be nicely decorated, maybe it'll be too busy and we won't get a seat??? It didn't occur to us that maybe a week before Christmas it wouldn't even be open! that's when we realised the build up to the big day is so so so far away from what happens in the U.K, Ireland, U.S.A, Canada etc. But is that a bad thing? possibly not, but to find a happy place somewhere in the middle would be very pleasant.

So Christmas 2017 was a bit of a disappointment, especially with no snow. A little bit was promised for the mountains around us but it never came, admittedly it dumped by the bucket load in the Pyrenees, so we will be heading that way next week. But just a little skiff to walk in would have been nice, but to be honest highly unlikely in these parts, it is the south of France after all.

 

 

 

Christmas Eve walking near Lac du Vezoles, beautiful.