Posted on 06/06/2026 7:19:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Three-and-a-half-thousand hungry Alsatians wolf down platters of charcuterie and periodically burst into noisy chorus....the latest iteration of a feasting phenomenon that is sweeping provincial France.
The Alsace town of Colmar – famous for its half-timbered medieval centre – was the scene last weekend of one of the banquets géants – huge banquets whose popularity in the country has suddenly become a hot political issue.
Run by a company called Le Canon Français (The French Cannon), the banquets are massively attended – €81 (£70) buying you four courses of local gastronomy, all the wine you can drink, and several hours of sing-along camaraderie.
At the Colmar banquet, held in a vast hangar-like space on the edge of town...the punters are seated on long tables with 50 down each side. Many men are in what has become a kind of Canon Français uniform of berets and braces. A few women are in traditional Alsace dress.
There is a brief address from management reminding diners of the "charter" committing them to behave with respect and decorum, and then the fun begins. An army of servers brings out platters with choucroute, then Alsace cheeses and the traditional kougelhopf pudding. Wine flows.
Periodically the revellers down forks and join in song. Old standards by performers like Michel Delpech and Joe Dassin are the favourites. These are songs from an earlier generation, but the participants - who look like they are mainly in their 20s and 30s - know them by heart.
"We come for four things: atmosphere, friends, alcohol and food," says one young man in a response which is echoed over and again. No-one wants to talk politics, except to say that they think the whole controversy has been blown out of proportion.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
I'm trying to imagine 3,500 German Shepherds being turned loose on tables filled with charcuterie, and howling in chorus from time to time. Must be quite a scene.
Germany took it for about 75 years
And the French caused WWI over it, by having their alliance with Russia.
As this comes from the BBC, I thought it was a convention of German Shepherds until I saw the picture. Eh, just the French, whatever.
You don't hate the BBC and marxists enough
“Why can’t they just leave us alone?””
______________________________________
Because they are Fascists and you are not yielding to their paradigm.
"Radical left" is redundant. 🙂😊😁😀😃😆😅😂🤣
These are overwhelmingly mainstream ideas to anyone with a functioning brain!
France needs to listen to Pierre-Edouard Stérin!
"they share the same political ecosystem, whose aim is to bring the far right to power." Translation: They will restore Western Civilization to ascendance and save Europe from decadence and suicidal destruction!
I would love to have attended the Colmar event! I'll don berets and braces and traditional Alsace dress! I'm a vegetarian, but I can just skip the pork and indulge in everything else.
MESSAGE POUR PIERRE-ÉDOUARD STÉRIN :
WWI was France’s fault?
A bunch of French folks getting together to enjoy Food, wine, and song in a convivial setting. Gee, the horror. Lefties are some real killjoys. I would much prefer attending one of these banquets than spend two minutes with any of the jackasses who are complaining about these events.
This is all about young French men trying to preserve their culture. Good for them.
I’m from England, a punter is just a colloquialism for a customer
Rendez à la belle France sa prééminence, sa santé mentale, sa force et sa raison !
La diversité n'est PAS une force. La diversité est une faiblesse ! Unis, nous tenons ; divisés, nous chutons.
WWI was France’s fault?
A lot of blame to go around, sure, but France didn’t like the “new kid on the block” from the beginning in 1871, and they were obsessed with getting revenge for losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, even to the point of allying with Czarist Russia to do it. That’s where the whole tangling of alliances came from.
It shouldn’t have mattered to the rest of the world who won between Germany and Russia in WWI.
How do they keep the women out?
Poor Austria-Hungary and Germany.
The UK shouldn’t have gotten involved. Unfortunately to not do so after Germany’s invasion of Belgium would have invalidated the UK’s guarantees to Belgium sovereignty and repudiated a couple of 100 years of UK policy about not allowing a major continental land power occupy the channel ports. If Germany had stayed out of Belgium just gone on the defensive vis-a-vis against France it would have just remained another central European squabble.
No one has brought up the Colmar Pocket campaign. My dad had a unit citation for that. It was the scene of two Medals of Honor actions one being Audie Murphy.
The UK and Germany should have been allies, and ganged up against the French in 1871. Would have saved the world a lot of grief.
Britain has The Empire, Germany has the continent. The two world wars cost Britain the Empire, even though they “won”.
Agree!
It was another Bonaparte causing trouble in 1871. An incompetent one but still a Bonaparte. It would have been just like old times!
The French had an empire nearly as big as the Brits at the time (and much bigger now because contrary to the stupid Brits, the French have kept and populated a lot of islands all over the map). So it’s doubtfull a UK-Germany alliance would have prevailed over France-Russia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.