I’m at a place in my life where I’m okay with not having a wild party on New Year’s Eve (…although I do still believe a big night out every now and then is good for the soul). But even if there’s no big NYE party, I’m not quite ready to treat the last day of the year like it’s any other night, and go to bed at 11pm. So I did what any sensible person would do when trying to find something to do…
I turned to Google.
‘NYE in France’
Google did not disappoint.
Of course one suggestion was to go to Paris. Then there was Canne’s amazing fireworks show, or suggestions to attend a Réveillon dinner, where people feast on oysters, smoked salmon and foie gras. Other options were La Grande Parade in Normandy, or to find a Bain Saint Silvestre, which is the equivalent to a Canadian polar bear swim. But the suggestion that seemed the most interesting to me, happened to be taking place only a 1/2 hour from where we are in the SW of France.
Les Vendanges du Pacherenc de la St-Sylvestre takes place in the cute little town of Viella, in the Midi-Pyrénées region of France, and we decided to check it out! Throughout the day they offer different events focused around eating and drinking–talk about my kind of day! Then when nightfall arrives, everyone gathers at the town church, beautifully decorated and lined with flaming lanterns.
By the time mass was finished, the street was flooded with people who were given giant torches; all anxiously awaiting the call to start their flames using the pots of fire that lined the street.
As we marched through the streets, I once again fell a bit more in love with France, one of my now many, adoptive countries.
From the church we made our way through the centre of the small town, while people opened their shutters and watched the parade of flames from their homes above. 
Soon we turned down a lantern lit path and made our way down a hill where we could see the chateau’s vineyard filled with lanterns and a giant bonfire in the field.
As Basque music filled the air, I also heard around me, gasps of, ‘Manifique’, ‘C’est encroyable’, ‘Genial’, ‘C’est super!’.
I smiled in agreement, because as we made our way down to the vineyard, it really was wonderful.
We threw our torches in the bonfire and were given vin chaud (mulled wine) and grape cutting scissors. 
It was now up to us to pick the final harvest of grapes for the season. Tubs of collected grapes passed through the vineyards and families chatted with each other as we moved along the grapevines.
A bit more vin chaud and some Basque music around the bonfire and we headed back home to continue the celebrating. The majority of the crowd trickled out at the same time as us, but had we been organized months ago(not our strong suit), we could have joined in what was likely the best part of an already amazing evening. The chateaux in the area had formal dinners to ring in the New Year, but alas, we only found that out December 30th and when we called to make a reservation we were told every chateaux was sold out by September, and I now understand why. It was one of the coolest experiences we’ve had in France, and we lived here for five years!
How did we not hear about this before?
Merci Viella for letting us be a part of this unique(and free!) way to cap off the year, and thank you Google, for being our match-maker. If we’re back next year, I’ll report back on the chateau dinner!