Today is a holiday in France. It’s lundi de Paques–Easter Monday. Many villages celebrate with a giant omelette.
Cooked en plein air, because that’s what spring is all about.
The fire is fueled by stumps of vines, or pieds de vignes.
Bacon, onions and mushrooms sauté first.
Usually there’s also wild asparagus, but last year, when these photos were taken, the wild asparagus was all gone by Easter, which was a couple of weeks later in spring.
Six bowls of eggs were employed.
Cooked with a close eye–it’s hard to adjust the heat on a fire.
The invitation is “apporter les couverts”–bring your covers. Everybody arrives with a cute basket with their plates, silverware, glasses and napkins. It certainly simplifies cleanup. We keep a basket packed, ready for the next local fête.
Dining is outdoors, weather permitting.
Taste of France 
Interesting. And now I want an omelette.
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Love this, send more on various traditions in France.
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I always like more details- who is invited, what time of day is this, is there a charge to attend, who is cooking, where is it – park, church yard, a home, etc.
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To answer your questions: it starts around 11 a.m. for aperitifs. At the salle polyvalente, or community hall (used for wedding receptions, school functions like bingo night, local exercise classes, etc.) Outdoors if it’s nice out, like today; inside if it isn’t. The fire is just off the parking lot. There are 40-50 people. They buy tickets at any of the local businesses in advance, about 13 euros a head. Anybody can attend. They eat and eat and eat and then hang out with music for the afternoon. The cooks used to be two local couples (here at least) but now is done by the comite des fetes, or festival committee, mostly made up of young people. Lots of fun! They do one on July 13, too, which I’ll post then. (July 14 is the gigantic fireworks at la Cite, so there’s no competing with that, hence doing it the day before)
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Thanks for sharing…looks like fun. Any festivals in October?
Ali
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Yes. Aigues Vives has the Foire de la Pomme, du Vin et du Riz; Armissan has the Foire des Vendages. Most of the village festivals are a bit earlier, and the holiday ones (like the Foire au Gras–the fat fair–for foie gras, duck, etc.; or the truffle markets) are later.
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Love this huge omelette – what a lovely idea!
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