Beignets de Patates a Champdrey (Potato Pancake Festival!)

The now-famous (in our circle of friends) Potato Pancake Festival in Champdrey (the village on top of the mountain show in the quiz) took place last night, and it was, as predicted, a lot of fun--although the general feeling was that the beignets (kind of like hash browns, but better) were not as good as last year. Oh, well--the bacon sandwiches made up for it! (Think thick-cut bacon cooked on an open fire, on fresh French bread--mmmmm!) Patrick, Ren, and I went to 6:00 mass in Champdrey at the church across from the festival. In fact, if you look at the first picture, that's the priest sitting at the bottom right in the white with the glasses. He joined us for a glass of wine and some beignets, and let me tell you, he held his own with the funny stories and jokes! (Thank God, everyone kept the jokes clean, at least while Frere Jacques was with us!) You can just see the church behind our table. Clockwise from left to right, starting at the bottom left: Bertrand Voirin, me, Catherine Voirin, some other people we didn't know, across from Catherine is Christine Jacques (Philippe's wife), Philippe (Patrick's bro), Frederic (Patrick's cousin and close friend), Father Jacques, and Pierre (a friend of Bertrand).



Funny stories and jokes were told by anyone who had that ability (not me). Here, Philippe tells a good one to Fredo.



Only complaint: long lines for the food! You can just see Patrick waiting in line for the bacon sandwiches, in the right half of the picture behind a lady with a pale green sweater around her shoulders.


Like last year, a clown was present to provide entertainment. I'm not usually a fan of clowns, but this guy is really good. He keeps the kids entertained while still keeping it humorous enough for the grown-ups, and his juggling ability was impressive.

The "after party" was at Bertrand and Catherine's house in Granges. We had champagne and kuggelhopf (don't hold me to the spelling on that). Clockwise starting at bottom left: Pierre, Fredo, Christine, Bertrand, Philippe, Virginie (Bertrand's neice and godchild), her fiance Olivier (a policeman), Monique (Bertrand's sister-in-law's sister and Virginie's godmother), and Patrick.

The funny stories and jokes continued! But we were still home and in bed by 1:00am, which was earlier than last year (and very welcome by those of us who need our 8 hours!)

As they say, a good time was had by all. (Ren had dinner with us, including beignets and coke, and then Patrick drove him down the mountain so he didn't have to hang with the old fogies.)