A night out with the neighbours!

Here we are on Bastille Day, taking things fairly easy after a big night out last night!  Many of the towns and villages in France celebrated Bastille Day last night, Saturday, and Le Thoronet was no exception.  We began the night with free drinks put on by the Mayor!  Tables lined up down the street, council staff pouring champagne, wine, juice, and a pink fruity number which turned out to be sangria. There was also substantial effort on the food front, even if the authenticity was lacking, with pizza, sausage rolls, sandwiches and a huge display of fresh fruit cubes on sticks - it soon became apparent that this was for the sangria.  There was certainly no counting how many drinks you had, so the street was packed with all the villagers having a great time.  We met up with several friends from the hamlet and after a couple of hours, moved on to the local bar/cafe for dinner.
It's taken us six months, but this was exactly the experience we were hoping to get by living in France for a year - having dinner with a group of 25 French locals, with me having to speak French all night, and Lew sticking close to the ones who speak a bit of English!

It was a lot of fun, with all sorts of conversations going on, a lot of laughter, and me trying to follow what was going on and give the odd translation to Lew.  We were opposite a hilarious couple from Calais who are down here visiting his sister in Les Fadons.  He gave me a crash course in the Pas-de-Calais language which is still spoken in the north of France - totally different to French both spoken and written.

We started eating at about 9.45pm, so had to abandon the table and run into the street when the fireworks started at 10.30pm.  Then the dancing started......
The French love to dance, and there seems to be a huge number of dances which involve bizarre looking actions and steps on the dance floor.  No inhibitions, everyone is just out for a good time. There now follows the worst photo in the world, of everyone doing "Gangnam Style" - I had to put it in, as it conveys the atmosphere...I think!

We left after midnight, with everyone still going strong, including numerous children under ten!
A fantastic night, it really made us feel like we are getting into the community here.  We'll be really into the swing of things by the time we leave!

Not much else to report this week, so I'll leave you with a French language quiz:
Question: what is the French word for "flowers"?
Helpful hint: there's a clue in the photo....