Aunt Annie’s birthday party in Lyon
Last weekend, we were invited to Aunt Annie’s 50th birthday party in Lyon. My father-in-law has 6 siblings and she is the youngest of all.
Well, imagine, seven brothers and sisters, they have their husbands/wives. Their children came with their husbands/wives and then their own children plus friends of Aunt Annie. Having more than 100 guests, it was one of the biggest birthday parties I have ever been invited to!
Some of the guests came all the way from Cyprus and brought delicious olives and feta cheese.
Normally we rent a banquet room for this size of party but they decided to do it at home.
How did they accommodate 100 persons in one place? They installed a enormous tent in their backyard. Such a tent would never fit in my small Parisian backyard.
We started gathering around noon to enjoy the apéro. It lasted for a couple of hours before we finally sat down inside the tent and enjoyed the birthday feast. To be honest, I was no longer hungry after eating a lot of amazing olives and cheeses. But the hors d’œuvres included fish cakes and vegetable pâté, which were so delicious. These were followed by tender roast beef with gratin dauphinois.. and four different kinds of cakes. How could I resist?!
That weekend happened to be the weekend of Pâques (Easter), so kids did an Easter egg hunt in the garden while we adults still enjoyed eating/talking/drinking inside the tent. Actually they were not really eggs but chocolates in all different types of shapes, eggs, chickens, bunnies, priests and so on.
Ok, we started around noon, and we left the party after midnight, which is quite common in France.
You will be surprised by how long the parties in France can be!
When we left, there were still people dancing inside the tent. The party goes on!!
I am invited to two weddings in June. I will tell you how things go, as weddings in France are even longer than this!!.
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Nahoko Tournier
Chocolate priests? Did I read that correctly? Sounds like fun, and a very long lunch. Look forward to hearing about the weddings!
Hi Debra,
Yes, they had shapes of priests. We are invited to two weddings (two nights in a row!) in the beginning of June. It will be a long long weekend..
Isn’t that interesting? Are chocolate priests made throughout Europe do you think, or is it particular to France? In Australia for Easter we have chocolate bilbys, which are an endangered native marsupial-similar to a mouse but with big ears and a long nose-very cute. This is to raise awareness of the Bilby. I don’t imagine chocolate priests are made for the same reason, but they are probably very cute!