An evening out - French country stlye

Last night we attended a pig roast at our local Mairie (town hall this sort of translates as, although ours acts as a primary school and council offices as well as somewhere we can have events like this).  The pig was spitted and began its slow cooking early in the morning while OAP and I were investigating yet another car- boot sale.  We bought a very amateurish picture of a cat - for the frame!  I bought 2 plates for my new wall collection and I managed to knock 10 euros off a pair of curtains for ''Sally's'' room.  Then it was off to the Bricolage to exchange our weed-eater for a small lawn mower.  Reason for this?  We decided that unless I get a top of the range monster I'm not going to be able to tackle the weeds across the road in the orchard.  I have been doing it by hand, but if you stop for a couple of days (to allow the insect bites to subside) the weeds have grown back almost to what they were before!  Our neighbour Peter came up with the solution: he, or Jo-Ann (our estate agent would you believe!)  will do the first slash of the season then it's up to us to keep on top of it.  He doesn't use his weed-eater any more as he uses Jo's monster, petrol driven, harness worn, and cuts through virtually anything.  So he's said we can take over his old one - in exchange I'll make him curtains for his bedrooms! Love this exchange system and neighbourly-ness.  I worried that I would get twitchy never being able to go outside without Peter popping out but he seems to know when I don't want to be sociable so at the moment all is fine.
Back to the pig roast: It was scheduled for 6pm but we only left home at 7pm (me thinking - how rude!) and got there 10 minutes later - in time to help put out plates, serviettes, etc!!  Peter, who seems to know EVERYONE, introduced us to a number of people and then we were off!  It seems everyone was excited to have new inhabitants and knew we were from SA and wanted to discuss the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome - our knowledge was sadly lacking and it was up to them to tell US!!!  We met Monsieur Le Mair who, when I could understand him, was interesting, telling us about the local chateaux of the area.  At about 8.30pm they decided the pig was done and took it off the spit and carved it up - it was HUGE but as there were 67 people to eat it there was plenty to go round but not much left over!  The local ladies had made a potato salad and a moroccan couscous (using mint from our garden!) and a carrot salad.  Very nice.  As the only ''table d'anglais'' we were slightly disappointed that there was no crackling.  The french have never heard of it!  We tried couenne, grillée to no avail.  Gilbert (local electrician) tried his best by rescuing some fatty bits and seperately grilling them while the rest of the pig was cut up but I have an idea that it is a very english invention.  After stuffing ourselves with pork we moved on to tiramisu, pear tart (a local specialty), forest berry quiche, madelaines, chocolate mousse and ice cream.  Then the dancing began - a bunch of ladies and one guy decided to demonstrate the local dancing - the man was so bad that they eventually pushed him out of the group!  The women danced wildly and it was charming.  Then there was a waltz to the tune that Morticia and Gomez, of The Addams Family, danced to!  It made even me want to dance, but I didn't as I just can't waltz.  Then they got Peter to teach them some line dancing which was hilarious as they were a clumsy, unruly bunch - yes even the ladies!!  There were some children there who also danced and one little girl, like a doll, who watched the adults carefully and then tried to dance by herself - arms out and dancing backwards like the women!  It was so cute!  No one made a fuss of the kids, they were at home and well behaved and not precocious at all.  If they got a bit wild then one of the parents would speak to them and they were as good as gold again.  I didn't take the camera as I had dragged it around every day and yesterday gave it a rest - what a mistake!  I took a couple of pics with the cell phone OAP had with him but it's an old one and I have no way of uploading them to the computer!  We came home close on midnight and our little ''village'' was peaceful with bats flying around the lone street light and a slight breeze stirring the leaves on the silver birches.