Xmas in France

French people celebrate Xmas on Xmas Eve. The Reveillon de Noel it is called and means the evening before Xmas. Here in Brittany people are very family orientated but have been kind enough on a number of occasions to invite me. This is difficult for me as a vegetarian. I don't like to compromise my principals but I do not like to offend my neighbours either especially as food and large sit down meals are so important to them. As you can imagine I find fois gras especially difficult to swallow and to refuse as they think I am very odd in not wanting to try their delicious Xmas treat.
I am not too good at staying awake until the early hours either and midnight here is the preferred hour for present opening.
This year I managed to have a French Reveillon with French friends and an English Xmas with two English friends.
My friend Sylvaine the hostess rang me to say that the meal would begin a little earlier than usual so would I be there at 8.45. Fortunately, I could stay over and was able to imbibe a little. We began of course with champagne. I had drunk champagne only once in my life before coming to France. Now it seems it is compulsory at every celebration here. To be absolutely honest the best part for me was Xmas morning. It was an unusually sunny day, and we went for a brisk walk before I drove to my English Xmas.
 My English friends and I agreed on a food sharing celebration and an overnight stay at Joy,s house as her house was deemed the warmest. Also, as she has a large dog and Glyn and I have cats it was the best solution. Secondly it gave us a good reason to take advantage of the sunny weather yet again to walk Bruno.

We spaced out the couses very nicely, eating and drinking as and when we felt like it and walking the dog in between. The whole meal was delicious and there was no compomising to be done as all three of us are vegetarian.