La Fête nationale...

Or Bastille Day.

Jut about all of our holidays in France coincide with Bastille Day and it's a good excuse to join the locals in celebrating the unity of the French people and this year was no exception.

Jan and Mick, the owners of our holiday house (and the most generous and lovely people ever!) invited us for drinks in the evening, with the plan being we would join the rest of the villagers at the Salle de Fete for Moules et frites and fireworks.

At 7.30pm Jan and Mick appeared at our little courtyard with lot of lovely nibbles,  shot glasses and bottles of homemade liqueur wine in an array of different flavours - raspberry, peach, blueberry, walnut, cherry, and blackberry to name a few.  Mick makes approx 35-50 litres a year.  The villagers make 500 litres a year and distill it in mobile still that visits the village at the right time of year.

Mick explained that the base alcohol is 60% proof but not to let that worry us as they dilute it with wine!!!

Well we tried them all (would have been rude not to ;-))  My favourites were the raspberry and peach.  Absolutely delicious!  

We sat in the sunshine, drinking their homemade hooch, eating delicious nibbles and chatting and chatting and laughing and laughing and before we knew it, it was almost 10pm and we still hadn't eaten dinner!  Luckily I'd made a lasagne earlier so before long we were tucking into that and toasting the fireworks.

And yes, we never quite made it to the Salle de Fete.  Next time maybe.

Vive la France!