For this weekend, Joel and Francoise had a big party planned – a “party of friendship” if you will. The big occasion was taking part in Angers. It’s a bit of pain to get to Angers from Nice, and after contemplating the many options, we finally opted upon flying to Nantes, and getting a hire car.
That meant staying Friday night in Nantes (our flight was arriving pretty late). Actually, our good friend Aude was just having her birthday that day, so we (well, Mathilde, actually) figured it would be a great idea to surprise Aude in Nantes for her big day. We organized everything very discreetly with Magaye, and managed to pull the surprise off(much to my surprise, har har), showing up at a gelateria in Nantes, calmly chatting with Magaye as Aude got back to the table. After a nice gelato, we made our way to the Biergarten for a couple of cold ones (gave me nice flashbacks from my week in Ulm a week and a bit earlier). I think Aude enjoyed our little surprise too!
The next day, after a bit of a lie-in, we headed back to Angers, just in time for lunch at Joel and Francoise’s place. Since we were treated to truly splendid weather (like everywhere in Europe), we decided to head into Angers town centre for a bit of a walk. After a bit of shopping, and walking around the streets of Angers, we made our way for a quick visit at Delphine’s and Christophe’s, after which it was time to make our way to the party.
We were staying at the Kyriad hotel in Pont-de-Ce, where our parents were also staying (they had made their way to the party all the way from Finland – on their way back to Antibes). The party was just kicking off as we showed up - apero time! It was a super occasion, it really was. The food was fantastic (as always), there was plenty to drink, and the atmosphere was just great, with people of all ages mixing it quite successfully. Great to see all the relatives and friends of both Francoise and Joel united. It was actually a bit like a wedding, but less formal. I think my parents also appreciated the occasion – it gave them a bit of an insight into how French people throw a party.
We got back to the hotel, exhausted but very happy, about 3 in the morning… The next day, we had another lie-in, getting up after 10… After a relaxing morning at the hotel, we slowly made our way back to the party (yes, it was continuing today…), for more food! Yes, it was lunch time. Pretty much the same group as the day before were present, plus Didier and Gerard, Joel’s brothers. My parents had to head back after lunch, but we had a bit more time to spend enjoying the warm sunshine (the weather was positively fantastic this weekend – loads better than it was when we were here during the summer!)
To digest the delicious lunch, we decided on a bit of sport. And what better sport than Petanque, that most French of sports (well, some would perhaps argue that Petanque doesn’t fulfil all the criteria of a sport – but that’s just nit-picking if you ask me ;-) ). I started off with a one-on-one game with Xavier. It was close, but in the end I managed to beat Xavier – must’ve been beginners luck. For the next couple of games, the pros joined the fray, and predictively, the games ended up in complete massacre – in fact the second match was disastrous enough for our team that we would have, under normal circumstances, had to kiss the fanny (for an in-depth explanation about what a Fanny is in the context of petanque, check out this link).
Thankfully, there was no fanny around, and the suggestion to kiss Michel’s bum was thankfully withdrawn after some pleading by us (mostly me). ‘twas enough humiliation for one day, so we decided to say good bye to everybody and head back to Nantes. And say our most genuine thanks to our host and hostess for an absolutely fantastic party!
After dropping off Herquise at Nantes, we made our way back to Aude and Magaye’s place, where we spent another night before catching the morning flight to Nice (after an improvised dinner and a bit of telly). That brought an end to a rather hectic, but fantastic, weekend in the west of France!
That meant staying Friday night in Nantes (our flight was arriving pretty late). Actually, our good friend Aude was just having her birthday that day, so we (well, Mathilde, actually) figured it would be a great idea to surprise Aude in Nantes for her big day. We organized everything very discreetly with Magaye, and managed to pull the surprise off(much to my surprise, har har), showing up at a gelateria in Nantes, calmly chatting with Magaye as Aude got back to the table. After a nice gelato, we made our way to the Biergarten for a couple of cold ones (gave me nice flashbacks from my week in Ulm a week and a bit earlier). I think Aude enjoyed our little surprise too!
The next day, after a bit of a lie-in, we headed back to Angers, just in time for lunch at Joel and Francoise’s place. Since we were treated to truly splendid weather (like everywhere in Europe), we decided to head into Angers town centre for a bit of a walk. After a bit of shopping, and walking around the streets of Angers, we made our way for a quick visit at Delphine’s and Christophe’s, after which it was time to make our way to the party.We were staying at the Kyriad hotel in Pont-de-Ce, where our parents were also staying (they had made their way to the party all the way from Finland – on their way back to Antibes). The party was just kicking off as we showed up - apero time! It was a super occasion, it really was. The food was fantastic (as always), there was plenty to drink, and the atmosphere was just great, with people of all ages mixing it quite successfully. Great to see all the relatives and friends of both Francoise and Joel united. It was actually a bit like a wedding, but less formal. I think my parents also appreciated the occasion – it gave them a bit of an insight into how French people throw a party.
We got back to the hotel, exhausted but very happy, about 3 in the morning… The next day, we had another lie-in, getting up after 10… After a relaxing morning at the hotel, we slowly made our way back to the party (yes, it was continuing today…), for more food! Yes, it was lunch time. Pretty much the same group as the day before were present, plus Didier and Gerard, Joel’s brothers. My parents had to head back after lunch, but we had a bit more time to spend enjoying the warm sunshine (the weather was positively fantastic this weekend – loads better than it was when we were here during the summer!)
To digest the delicious lunch, we decided on a bit of sport. And what better sport than Petanque, that most French of sports (well, some would perhaps argue that Petanque doesn’t fulfil all the criteria of a sport – but that’s just nit-picking if you ask me ;-) ). I started off with a one-on-one game with Xavier. It was close, but in the end I managed to beat Xavier – must’ve been beginners luck. For the next couple of games, the pros joined the fray, and predictively, the games ended up in complete massacre – in fact the second match was disastrous enough for our team that we would have, under normal circumstances, had to kiss the fanny (for an in-depth explanation about what a Fanny is in the context of petanque, check out this link). 
Thankfully, there was no fanny around, and the suggestion to kiss Michel’s bum was thankfully withdrawn after some pleading by us (mostly me). ‘twas enough humiliation for one day, so we decided to say good bye to everybody and head back to Nantes. And say our most genuine thanks to our host and hostess for an absolutely fantastic party!After dropping off Herquise at Nantes, we made our way back to Aude and Magaye’s place, where we spent another night before catching the morning flight to Nice (after an improvised dinner and a bit of telly). That brought an end to a rather hectic, but fantastic, weekend in the west of France!
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