Twenty-five years

... we have lived in this house. That definitely deserved a party. Officially it should have happened on the 4th of July, our personal independence day, but as almost always we managed to miss it, this year for the very good reason that we were in Cork. Then S was ill, then we were away, and eventually I found a two-day window of possibility and we picked the day with the better weather forecast.

Indeed, the weather was perfect. As usual we vowed to keep it simple, this time by making large quantities of a few dishes. And then just to keep things straightforward, we invited forty people, including several we don't normally invite. We did have the nous to ask them to bring their own crockery, cutlery and glasses, and we borrowed tables and chairs from the Mairie, which saved asking people to bring those too.

It was absolutely brilliant. It's been so long since we had one of these neighbourly apero events, and it was a lovely warm evening. Lots and lots of mingling. We needn't have worried about the catering, as lots of people brought food and wine. so of course there was far too much. Caro brought her famous onion tart, still warm from the oven, and it was demolished within minutes. Others brought quiches, cakes, tarts, fresh figs, grapes, and champagne. The last few people finally cleared off at about half past midnight and we did a quick bit of tidying and dishwasher loading before heading to bed exhausted. But very pleased as I think this is one of the most enjoyable independence parties we've done (I said that last year too!).

I felt the pressure to take a photo ... I've had to give out so many printed copies of S's photo of the last time we did this. So I took several ... I picked this one because S is in it and you can also clearly see our mayor Serge.

Menu, just for my records:
Gazpacho in shot glasses with teeny weeny croutons
Many different savoury tarts, salads, and dips
Pan con tomate 
Ratatouille
Cheese
Lemon cheesecake
Bakewell tart (made this morning as I feared we wouldn't have enough dessert otherwise, haha)
Many cakes and tarts including G's signature lemon and verbena tart

The leftovers are copious -- no need to cook for a few days!