© Copyright Harleston Grapevine 2008

Winter in France

It is early December and after a two-week visit to London I am busy collecting up the thousands of dead leaves that have fallen on our roofs and gutters. This involves some tricky ladder work plus careful walking on boards over a plastic roof. The source of the leaves are the trees in the chateau garden behind our house and I wrote to the owners who have sent a friendly reply promising to lop some branches. We shall see.

Autumn and winter do bring some enjoyable social occasions, opportunities to meet with friends and neighbours – and to make new friends.  We made a start last month with the annual walk in a neighbouring village, which also provided an opportunity to practise speaking French.  It also gave some of our French companions a chance to practise English speaking, which many like to do.

Soon there is a walk in our village to raise money for the Telethon in aid of children in Africa. In January we look forward to the annual feasts of St Sebastien and St Vincent, though I have not yet found out much on the origin of these.  St Sebastien is the patron saint of vineyard workers and a nearby village that celebrates this has a President for the occasion who also chooses a vice-President who will preside the following year.

Our village, by contrast, celebrates St Vincent and we have a King and a Dauphin. The day (24th January) begins with a church service of thanksgiving for a good grape harvest (the hymns are very specific on this), followed by a procession to the King’s house for wine and singing (pub songs), then to the Dauphin’s house for more of the same. In the evening there is a feast and dancing.  A smaller group meets the next day for a cold lunch (and wine). Originally, women were excluded entirely from the event because of the belief that they would sour the wine!

I have tried to find out why St Sebastien and St Vincent were chosen but nobody knows, though there was one speculation that Vincent sounds like the French words for wine (vin) and blood (sang) and therefore linked to the Eucharist. That sounds like guesswork to me.

Gerry Pocock