Le Gros Souper - Entrées

On Christmas Eve the meal usually begins with a salad of celery or endive à l’anchoïade, or with escargots (and shiny new long nails to dig the reluctant ones out of their shells) and a bowl of aïoli. A soup may follow - Soupe de crouzets: little squares of pasta boiled in good bouillon and finished off under the grill with a liberal sprinkling of Gruyère and crushed walnuts- or aïgo boulido, which is no more than water perfumed with garlic and herbs. The Provençals say ‘L’aïgo boulido sauvo la vido’ (‘l’aïgo boulido saves your life’). To this they add ironically ‘Au bou d’un temps, tuio li gent’ (after a white it kills you’). It is, after all, not a very substantial soup.