Gifts for the old folk

Next year I will qualify, but today I was just a plus one. The commune provided lovely Christmas parcels for everyone over 70 years old and a tea party with sparkling wine, hot chocolate, cakes and tea. (see extras) The Maire gave a speech to the hundred or so people present and entertainment was provided by the local choir and our own French bellringer, Daniel, who brought along his Barbary organ. We sang along to some old French musette songs and it was good fun. On our table were the tennis club president, Etiennette, and her husband, Claude. He along, with another old lady on the table, regaled us with stories of the war and resistance in the village. There were routes through the village, taking airmen over the mountain into Spain, and Madame White who ran a local hotel, had regular meetings with the resistance to enable them to be pass airmen on to the ‘passeurs’. She even had an arrangement with the commandant of the local Wehrmacht, who was not a Nazi, to turn a blind eye.