Beaujolais

So last night was fantastic. I went to a big festival that occurs each year in France. The night started off with myself and a massive crowd of mostly Koreans and various other nationalities. While waiting for the bus I had to remember to no step in the crotte du chien that one of my friends stepped in earlier. Nothing like good old poo on the shoe to start off the night. For awhile I wonder if the bus was ever going to arrive. Since the public transportation system is on strike in France buses have turned into something not commonly seen in France, well sort of.

Finally the bus arrived and we were off towards some area north of Lyon. You know know that I think about it I'm really sure, exactly where we were going but I had a general idea. I sat next to my one of my friends from class and she taught me some Korean. Eventually we made it to our first destination and arrived at the restaurant where we were having our pre-party dinner.

The dinner itself was really tasting. Unfortunately for me my digestive system currently wasn't too happy so I had to bear through a kind of stomach ache for most of the dinner. Yet it wasn't crippling, just highly annoying. Eventually by the end of the meal it was mostly gone. Dinner consisted of a salad to start off with, then a sausage and potatoes main course. The food was really tasty in a French kind of way. A fine mix of creamy goodness with the sprinklings of herbal magnificence. For desert we were swept away into an dream filled with apricots, cream, and pastry magic. It was the best dessert that I had in a long time. We took a lot of pictures at the dinner and the Asians, especially the girls, especially the Japanese, were obsessed with always doing hand signs. This seems to be the standard procedure. They would do the "I love you" sign but would do it backwards, lol. It winds up with funny pictures which leaves one questioning whether people are flashing gang signs, obscene gestures, or just being silly. In the end it is just being silly.

Our next step was to head to were the party was. Where that was, like I said I'm not exactly sure but the bus dropped us off in a town were we were left in the freezing cold air. We did what any reasonably person would do, find the campfires-wheel-barrels and get warm. I took a side tour to find a toilet of sorts and wound up discovering which what I thought was a laser show. I turned out to be just lasers and smoke but there was a mini laser show a little latter on.

Eventually the parade started coming our way and I grouped up with some friends and joined in the parade. I got handed a torch. Sweet! Basically the parade consisted of a bunch of people marching and dancing with torches. Our destination: free wine! and lots of it. We marched and danced our way all the way to the party and counted off the new year to a new wine season.

This was followed by a fireworks show, laser show, and best of all free wine for everyone. Tchin tchin! Cheers! The was much wine drinking and dancing afterwards. I got the dancing going with a group of 8 amies or so and it was a bast as always. Of course many pictures because the Asians seemed to be more hardcore about taking group photos then other cultures that I've met. The pictures were hilarious because it would usually start out with a group. Of us and then there would just be random French guys that would join into the picture. The French guys really like talking with the girls because the were clearly étrangers. Some of these guys where a bit more sketchy than others but I think the sketchy one eventually got weeded out. The were a lot of old men that would love to go up to go up to the girls and give them the French cheek kisses. It was pretty hilarious.

Eventually we had to return to the bus after enough (more than even) dancing, wine drinking, and pictures. I see if at some point I can get some of these pictures because I pretty much focused on being in the pictures rather than taking them. I sat next to a Japaneses friend on the way back and we wound up falling asleep for the bus ride back. Dancing and wine drinking does get tiring after all.

On the walk back home I got to try some chunk of a baguette freshly made. I've determined that no baguette beats 4am real French baguette. Anyway the night was absolutely superb. A night to remember.