À Vendre

The letters AV, often merged into a crooked N, indicate that something (usually a car by the roadside) is for sale.   The plough in the picture came as a bit of a surprise, however.   Perhaps it is the land that is for sale. Building plots, like houses, continue to rise in price.  No housing bubble here.

Réveillon

New Year's Eve is the feast of Saint-Sylvestre. Sylvestre was a fourth century pope who inspires no reverence today. In fact, the day is known locally as le Réveillon, but as in other localities this refers to Christmas Eve, it's safer to stick to Saint-Sylvestre.

Dinner is traditionally prolongued and focuses on truffles or foie gras. We decided to splash out and work our way through a six-course dinner, taking us from 9 p.m. to after midnight. Only one of the notable local restaurants was open and that turned out to be poorly patronised, but we did our duty and saw the new year in in style. The lack of interest in the feast may be partly due to draconian enforcement of the drink-driving law. Enforcement of the ban on smoking in restaurants has been tacitly postponed until January 2nd.