Bonne année 2014!

Happy New Year! May 2014 bring you health, happiness and prosperity!

 

Lionel and I started the New Year celebrations early this year, on Saturday in fact, with a beach-themed pre-New Years party chez des amis here in Bordeaux. The beach theme really put me in the mood for summer...too bad it's only January! But regardless we had a great time seeing friends, meeting new people and celebrating the New Year a little early.

 

Pre-New Years beach party

 

For New Years Eve we were invited to join Lionel's cousin, his wife, their friends and some of Lionel's aunts and uncles for a New Years Eve soirée in St. Loubès.  The group of friends had rented a room, one of the friends who is a chef handled all the cooking for an apéro and dinner for about thirty people, and another friend was in charge of music for dancing.

 

Ready to ring in the New Year

 

at the beginning of the evening with Lionel's family

 

The evening was a lot of fun and the food was incredible. Some of it was typical for the holiday season - foie gras, oysters, various seafoods, salmon, etc - and some of it was a new experience for me - cherry tomatoes served coated in caramel and cashews (kinda like a crazy caramel apple), smoked duck and pineapple. On top of all that we also enjoyed various different kinds of jambon, saucisson, duck with apples, samosas, mushrooms, bacon-wrapped shrimp, scallops, tournedos, potatoes, salad, various cheeses with preserves, fruit, macarons, two different cakes (chocolate and caramel beurre sale), sorbet and of course copious amounts of different wines and champagne.

 

After eating so much incredible food we decided to dance the rest of the night away in an effort to burn off some of the calories we had consumed. Next thing we knew it was 5 a.m. and we decided to head home to get some sleep, though the party was still going strong when we left. The only downside of the evening in my opinion was the obligatory bises at midnight which takes a lot of time with thirty people! I'm not going to lie, I was hoping to avoid this tradition with a group so large but unfortunately I was sorely disappointed in that respect!

 

All in all a great start to 2014 and I hope it's a sign for good things to come this year!