It's the 'Telethon' this weekend.  A bit like the 'Pudsey' phenomenon in the UK last month (fund-raising for the  'Children in Need' charity), this one is for the 'Association Française contre les Myopathies', in other words, dedicated to raising money for the French Muscular Dystrophy charity. All over France, people will be doing worthy or silly (or both) things for pledges of cash. 

An English version of the official website gives a flavour of the event.

I wrote the last paragraph last week. Telethon now been and gone along with several more days of my life. I can't understand how these days pass, seemingly at ever increasing speed although it has been one of those weeks stuffed with more social activities than the average...

Notably, December 5th, or 6th (depending on your euro-origins) is the day when the Dutch, in particular, celebrate 'Sinterklaas'. It's a long story, but he's basically the very same 'Santa Clause' or Saint Nicholas or 'Father Christmas' that the rest of us recognise. Last Wednesday was the 5th December and it so happened merry band of friends held another of our 'Entre Deux' meals, this time chez Nini (Nini and Chris's names came out of the hat the time before).

As half of us around the table are Dutch, we did some of the traditional stuff like providing a couple of the 'Black Pete' slaves and writing little poems about one another. I and Chris were persuaded to 'black up' for this(!)

That was last week - now Christmas decorations are up in town and on Saturday there'll be a carol service in the local church. It's going to be a mixed French/English affair; we haven't sung English traditional Christmas Carols for ages so we're looking forward to it. Mince pies and other goodies afterwards.

Joyeuses Fêtes...

Mapmaker