Le 40th Fete - Part 1 - Le Party!

We arrived back from our little trip to Provence (which I completely forgot to write a diary for) only to find that, other from the boulangerie, all the cute little food shops were closed. The only place that was open was a small neighbourhood supermarket named "Shop". I know that sounds cool, but believe me, it wasn't. It was like a mini version of Safeway that had been cross-pollinated with Kwik Save. It was in this cheap, ugly little place that we were forced to buy all of the food for Fred's 40th Birthday soiree.

It was not what we had in mind. Despite the odds stacked against us we managed to prepare a very pretty spread of green, red and yellow pepper crudities, mozzarella, tomato and basil salad, charcuterie, cheeses, nuts, crisps and other nibbles. V bought home with her some gazpacho which spiced up the menu. T bought beautiful tarts which, dotted with candles, the children presented to Fred.