Louis et Jean-Yves

If you’re talking pieds et paquets you’re obviously talking large numbers for dinner. Don’t go thinking you can make 1 pied and 1 paquet: in the first place, a lamb has 4 trotters, you can’t waste 3 of them, and 1 parcel… please! You need to have a big group then, high in number certainly but, above all, high in quality. There’s no room for silliness, the pieds et paquets won’t stand for it.

You need an agreeable environment, a camp site or a restaurant, for example; fine weather is preferable but not indispensable; and above all, the lilting accent of the south. When these ingredients are brought together, when Louis snickers with relish at his neighbour’s antics and drags you into his giggling fits, when Jean-Yves promotes the breakfast-with-truffles of tomorrow, smile: anything goes… carpe diem.