Apéros in the South of France

I want to share with you, as a first post, a quintessentially French tradition. One that I look forward to every year upon returning to my second home country during the months of June through August.

Summer is a time for hot weather, chilled drinks and outdoor dining, preferably in the excited company of friends and family equally as eager as you are to be on vacation already. A time to forget the formal declination of courses served around a seated table, rather butterflying between conversations and finger foods for long, leisurely hours. The French make a point of this in their apéro, short for apéritif (Side note: don't mess with a French person's relaxation. Vacations are to put your feet up, not to spend hours standing over a stove). The apéro is a preface to dinner, a time to drink rosé and nibble on olives, nuts, cherry tomatoes and toasts topped with olive tapenade. Or anything you have on hand really, because all that matters is that you ease gently into what comes next. This is not the time to fuss about food, but rather open your appetite on some favorite summer nibbles.

To establish a comparison, one significantly tainted by my American college experience, the apéro is like a pregame. A pregame in the sense that it is technically meant to set the mood for later festivities, though such preparation may ultimately become the main event. Yes, after a few glasses of wine people tend to get excitable, and banter resonates from every direction. An innocent apéro veers toward debauchery around the time the costumes and musical instruments come out. To be sure an amazing meal will still follow, with salads, grilled meats and fish, cheeses and fruits. But it will only serve to settle everyone into food-induced languor, best remedied by an afternoon nap and espresso. Or, in extreme cases, by a walk through neighboring vineyards and a dip in a pool along the way whose water was far too turquoise, not to mention unguarded, to resist.

So don't be fooled by its effortless and spontaneous pretenses, nor its label as a pre-show to the main event. The summertime apéro is where the fun really happens.