July 23, 2006: from the Le Mans backlog
Posted Monday, August 14, 2006 @ 03:08 PM
11:17 PM, Le Mans
Today I witnessed one of the most natural, joyful family celebrations ever. I woke just before eleven, literally minutes before Viviane opened my door to wake me. Five minutes later, Landry and Cathy and their kids Alan, Bonnie, and Joanna arrived. Around 11: 20 we left the house and drove to a parking lot nearby so that Viviane could drive to the gite and pick up the rest of the family via caravan. Once she'd come back with them (after we'd stood around in the parking lot, looking like a tailgate party), we left for Laurent and Celine's in a 10-car caravan. They live in the middle of nowhere, so hardly anyone from the party at the gite knew how to get there. We passed two enormous sunflower fields on the way there; I thought of Everything is Illuminated.
We arrived and parked to the left of the house. Mom and Dad had never seen the estate before and Erin and I were careful to watch and see their reactions—I think it's sort of like their dream house. The house was originally built sometime before 1805, probably in the 1700s, but it's updated and very modern, yet natural with hardly any paint colors and lots of wood and stone.
On the front lawn they'd set up one incredibly long picnic table with plates and glasses and napkins all set out—like something out of a British film set in the 1890s—like Howard's End without a badminton court. Absolutely beautiful, even surreal. After such a late party and so much food, I think we all thought the barbeque would be a small event—paper plates, etc.—but they had hired the same chef from the previous evening and had set up tents and music and even a refrigerator in the yard. Unbelievable.
Just like last night, nous avons fait la bisous, and everyone gradually wandered over to the lawn after wrangling kids, touring the house, using the bathroom, etc. They'd set up a pingpong table and a foosball table and people played—even the oldest adults—and everyone chatted and gathered and milled around, eating vegetables with various sauces/dips. Before sitting down to eat, we gathered everyone for a large group photo, which I took (and thus don't appear in). I suspect it will appear in many family photo albums for years and years to come, seeing as there were 40+ people present—most of the extended Ehrhardt family.
We sat down briefly, poured wine, and then got up with our plates to go to the buffet. Couscous, ham with melon and tomato, French deviled eggs, bread, fresh vegetables, potato salad, and then sausage, sausage, steak, and chicken, then fruit tart. Absolutely delicious, and still a relatively light salad lunch. We sat down, ate, ate more, ate more, continued sitting, drank some water, drank wine, drank white/orange sangria, drank champagne, ate, got up to get more food, got up, ate, sat down. All in all it was very merry, incredibly relaxed, and a big family event.
The chef, at first, played Irish music while he cooked, but as we ate and he began to pack up, Celine put on a French dance favorites CD. People continued playing foosball and pingpong, Laurent challenging my dad to several games. I mostly drifted between the kids and following Erin. Julien, Pere-Yves' little son (who was only sitting up last year) is much bigger and walking, and absolutely adorable. I played with him and Ocean, Stephanie's new daughter.
People eventually began to leave, just as Laurent emerged from the house with several massive water guns and armed the kids. Everyone ran around the lawn screaming, trying to dodge water and ultimately failing; Guy had a whole bucket dumped on him, and any drinking water left on the tables became ammunition. Christian also got soaked, and so in typical fashion stripped down to his underwear and then wrapped himself in a table cloth toga.
Once people had left, we arranged a few tables under some trees on the opposite side of the lawn, following the shade, and set the table again for dinner. Around three or four hours later we opened the buffet again and everyone began to eat the leftovers until there was nothing left. I had some tart and fruit, but that was all I could manage. More ping pong, more playing with the kids, and a lot of milling around doing not much. It was fun and incredibly relaxing—much different and more lighthearted than family gatherings at home. Perhaps some of that has to do with the kids, who provide all the entertainment by dancing and playing (and running around with water guns).
More videos from Le Mans and the picnic are on vimeo.
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