New Year's Eve in the Alps

This post is woefully out of season, but I figured I'd post the pictures even so. 

Maria, Pierre and I spent New Year's in a chambre d'hôte in the Alps. There was a group of children in a foster-type situation with their educators who stayed in the same establishment with us. The owners of the chambre d'hôte were very friendly and they cooked us dinner and spent time in the evenings talking to us. 

Since there was a piano, I had the chance to play and sing with another person staying there! Everyone loved my Adele song and kept requesting it. It was really nice to have the piano and guitar there because it brought the group together for New Year's. We hadn't been talking or interacting until we started playing music and then everyone became friends. (For the time being!)

The orphaned girls had a little dog that they brought with them. He was awfully cute, but he had an obnoxious habit of biting your fingers if you stopped petting him. What a little brat! I had to give him some love though since I missed my puppies.

The woman who ran the chambre d'hôte made the table look pretty and festive and she even had a Christmas tree there.

The afternoon of New Year's, Pierre and I had a rather extensive argument about gender roles and societal expectations of each gender.  As soon as we got down to the living room for the "apéritif," the woman announced that the men's glasses had blue sugar on them and the women's had pink sugar. Then, for some reason, the other travelers rehashed the whole gender roles discussion. My eyes just glassed over at that point and I focused on enjoying my food!

The entrée was very seafood based. Those little red buggers are a piece of work to de-shell and then you only get a tiny bit of meat at the end. I gave mine to Maria because I just didn't have the patience!

Maria and I were being silly during dinner and when we lost focus with the gender roles discussion we made fortune tellers out of our napkins.

Maria and Pierre were big fans of the dessert. It looked good, but I didn't eat it since it had a lot of cream and milk-based ingredients.

And there it is, New Year's eve!

When it was finally midnight, an old man went and tried to ring the bell by the door of the kitchen to bring in the New Year, but he didn't realize that it wasn't attached and it fell on his head! Then everyone went around and had to kiss everyone else in the room. (On the cheek!) :)