Monday, April 2, 2012

April Fool's Day Lunch in Provence

Yesterday, the lovely and clever Kirsty made what seemed like a scheduling impossibility, possible.
She invited my little brood plus ma belle Sara and The Husband over for Sunday lunch at hers with her delightful Mister and adorable, dimpled quartet.

Turns out it was April Fool's Day, or as it's known here in France, Poisson d'Avril.
We Anglophones like to play various tricks and jokes on this day and I started the day off by making the kids believe that for one day birds fly backwards, fish swim upside down and flower blooms swap colors. They believed it for about a minute until Ma Fille, bright bulb that she is, twigged it.

The French have a different tradition. The children make fish and then stick them on the backs of unsuspecting (ahem) friends and adults. I told you all about it last year, you can read that here.

This year we went to Kirsty's and my kids got busy making fish in the car, ready to tape to backs once we arrived. They wrote funny sayings like, 'I am bizarre', 'I like nail polish', 'I am a weirdo' and 'I like to run with scissors'.

We went to the boulangerie to find something delicious to take with us and there were fish everywhere. Strawberry tart fish, apple tart fish, hollow chocolate fish in two sizes and puff pastry fish filled with the renowned frangipane of the famous croissant aux amandes. We bought one of those and were on our way. Kirsty wrote about it too.

{kirsty's photo of the frangipane poisson}

We spent a perfect, but fast-flying, six hours together, eating, laughing, joking and enjoying the warm day on Kirsty's beautiful terrace while the kids ran and jumped and played until the Littlest was literally falling down tired. It looked like he'd had as much pink wine as his P-Daddy.

Thank you Kirsty, Mister and La Quartet for the perfect Sunday.
And you too Sara and G-Ton for being so much like family that people think we've known each other for years. 

I don't know what I'd do without all the love that's bloomed from this little blog. No foolin'.

6 comments:

  1. Beaucoup love, that's for sure! 6 hours never went so fast.
    Thank you so much for coming all the way to see us and for bringing pastry. You know we'll just keep inviting you back if you bring pastry! x x

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  2. What a sweet post! Sounds like you all had a very good time together.

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  3. I love Poisson d'avril and remember it well when I was working for a year in a French school as an assistante it was so much fun and I love that frangipane fish!
    http://missbbobochic.blogspot.com/

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  4. Sounds like so much fun! I had a good bloggy week too. I'm finding the online ex-pat community is just as close knit as the 'real' one I have here. It makes the experience of living abroad all the more positive.

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  5. It's a lovefest!
    And that was the fastest six hours of my life. Seriously. x

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It makes my day to read your comments. They're an answer to my floating words in blogland.